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A 



The LUNCH ROOM 



as a 



MONEY MAKER 



Compiled by 

C. A. PATTERSON 

Editor and Publisher of the 

AMERICAN RESTAURANT 
MAGAZINE 



Patterson Publishing Co. 

Publishers, 658459-660 First Natl. Bank Bldg., Chicago 



-p^ 






Copyrighted 1921 By 

PATTERSON PUBLISHING CO. 

CHICAGO 



JUL28 r :i 

CI.A617773 



Contents 

Preface 5 

The Lunch Room — A Popular Type of Eating Place.... 7 

The Lunch Room as a Money Maker 10 

The Merchandizing of Food 14 

Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 22 

Operating Costs in the Lunch Room 38 

Driving Home the Cost of Wastefulness 43 

The Kitchen is a Vital Factor 48 

Mistakes in Lunch Room Operation 53 

The True Goal of the Lunch Room 60 

The Modern Lunch Room 66 

^To Get the Business and Keep It 77 

Cost- Accounting in the Restaurant 88 

A Money- Saving Restaurant Plan 92 

How About Your Costs? 95 

How My Commissary is Operated 97 

"Ham and—" 104 

Coffee — Your Best Friend If Treated Right 117 

The Lunch Room — A Winner in Hotels 125 

The Inside Secrets of a Lunch Room Success 136 

The Future of the Business 141 

Turning a Failure Into a Success : 145 

Poor Ventilation Kills Appetites 157 



Preface 

No one can lay down absolute rules whereby every 
detail of lunch room operation is covered. Ones own 
personality and the multitudinous conditions confront- 
ing in varied localities are factors no book can 
cover. The experiences of those who have made lunch 
room successes, as well as examples of failures in this 
type of eating place, we believe will be found illuminat- 
ing and valuable to those in this unit of the restaurant 
industry. 

Although almost half the public eating places of 
America are of the lunch room type, yet little effort has 
been made in the way of literature covering lunch 
rooms. 

This book is carefully compiled from every source 
possible where enlightening information was obtainable 
as to lunch room operating. It is intended to guide those 
already in the business or intending to do so. The vari- 
ous chapters are almost without exception the experi- 
ences of lunch room owners, treating of the various 
ways they have accomplished results. Nothing of this 
nature has ever before been attempted and we sincerely 
hope it will prove of value to the industry. While in 
every lunch room man's experience he is sure to have 
already solved some of the problems treated in this vol- 
ume, we believe that the combined analysis of the lunch 
room business as worked out in the various chapters will 
prove worth while reading. 

No one man can know it all, whether it be lunch 
rooms or anything else. The men who go the farthest 

5 



6 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

are those who study the other fellow's way of doing 
things and applying those ideas worth while. It is for 
just this purpose this volume is intended. 

I take no credit as the author, believing a book of 
this kind will prove of more value with the various chap- 
ters written by actual experienced lunch room operators 
and recognized equipment engineers. We are indebted 
to the engineers of several of the leading equipment 
houses for data as well as the American Restaurant 
Magazine from which some matter is reproduced. 

The Author. 



The Lunch Room — A Popular Type of 
Eating Place 

A survey of the lunch rooms in the United States 
indicates that there are almost twenty thousand enjoying 
a good credit rating, and probably ten thousand more 
smaller places. Approximately 44% of the public eat- 
ing places of America are of the lunch room type, and 
this form of feeding is easily the leader in the restau- 
rant industry. Of all types of eating establishments, 
the lunch room has been a consistent and steady money 
maker. The overhead, as for example the investment 
in equipment, furniture and fixtures, is lower than any 
other, being flexible enough to conform with the local 
conditions. In fact, many a profitable lunch room began 
with a good wife doing the cooking, with the husband 
handling the trade. 

Not long ago, one of the owners' of a high grade 
service restaurant, known irom coast to coast, frankly 
told me that he actually made a greater profit on a 
twenty stool lunch room than he did from his magnifi- 
cent eating palace. The secret of lunch room success 
is quick service. One of the most successful lunch 
room owners tells me he actually serves an average of 
55 in every twenty-four hours from each stool. The 
tendency of the times is quick service. 

People do not want to linger over their meals, for 
in these busy times, there is so much else to do. The 
war has changed the attitude of the public on this, and 

7 



8 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

the lunch room answers the need as the public want it. 
The prime requisites of a lunch room success are loca- 
tion, attractive, neat appearance and good food reason- 
ably priced. While this may sound trite, we can cite 
many lunch room failures, due entirely to the lack of 
observing these simple rules. 

The owners of three of the biggest chain lunch 
rooms all agree that location is their most important 
problem. They invariably try to locate near office build- 
ing districts, for office help as a rule are lunch room pa- 
trons. These men have pointed out that the busiest 
places where foot traffic is heaviest is not always desir- 
able; in fact, they point out that just off the crowded 
main traffic, has proved better not only because of lower 
rents but because trade is actually greater in volume. 
Retail districts have not been found as desirable as com- 
mercial for obvious reasons. 

The public judges an eating place by its general 
appearance, both the front and within. White as a pre- 
dominating color is used by the most successful, as it 
creates an air of sanitation and cleanliness. 

Many lunch rooms make a common error in having 
too large a space. This adds to the rental expense, and 
unless completely occupied and actual waiting guests 
are observed during rush hours, it is apparent that too 
much space is leased. In lunch rooms the time between 
serving and paying the check is only five or ten minutes. 
If your place is attractive enough, they will wait for a 
place. 

Last but most important of all, work out a simple 
system of operating. Do not guess, do not buy hap- 



A Popular Type of Eating Place 9 

hazard, do not leave important details to employees. Put 
your business on system, so that every night you will 
know where you stand. 

Remember that in figuring your profits your invest- 
ment must be figured. Bear in mind that in pricing your 
bill you must figure your rent, light, depreciations, etc. 
Do not base your prices on what your competitor is 
charging, but know yourself that your prices are fair to 
your trade with a reasonable profit to you. 

To the lunch room owner who observes these sim- 
ple rules, success is sure to crown his efforts for there 
is money in the lunch room if conducted with intelli- 
gence. Experience is not such a factor as good common 
sense. 

One of the greatest successes we know is that of a 
woman bookkeeper who started a lunch room for girls. 
She knows nothing of cooking and never was in a res- 
taurant except to eat. She has several places today and 
opens a new one every year, yet she still does not pre- 
tend to know about food preparation. She hires that 
and earns her profits as an executive. 



The Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

By H. C. NULMOOR 

Of all the many types of restaurants the lunch 
room is, and indications are, will continue as the most 
popular form of serving food to the public. Although 
the lunch room is but one type of restaurant in several 
with which it widely differs, yet the lunch room itself is 
divided again into several types of service. For example, 
the popular Dairy Lunch varies considerably with the 
Business Lunch Room; both differ with the so-called 
Railroad Lunch Room more or less. 

All, however, are fundamental in endeavoring to 
serve the public with good food at popular prices. Their 
menu is confined to but few meat dishes, but run strong 
to pastries, cereals, sandwiches, fruits, eggs and all food- 
stuffs prepared quickly or ready to serve. 

The plans of lunch rooms vary somewhat, but the 
accepted method is to serve by having stools in front 
of the counters for those pressed for time, and tables 
filling the remaining space where patrons can be served. 
We do not refer to the arm chair service which type must 
be specially treated. 

The success of a lunch room depends on the loca- 
tion, for while a person will walk blocks to reach a high- 
grade restaurant, famous perhaps for its food, the great- 
est reason for a lunch room is that it is convenient and 
reasonable in price. Serving food as it does to meet 
the slim purse it cannot go in for fancy dishes. So 
with limited variety there is scant opportunity to do 

10 



Lunch Room as a Money Maker 1 1 

more than appeal to the passer-by. Thus the lunch 
room, to be successful, must locate where the crowds 
pass. There is perhaps no type of restaurant that serves 
either a greater variety of patrons or has more new 
faces appear every day. 

In a lunch room as in every other eating place, 
cleanliness should be a religion. Positively nothing dis- 
courages digestion like dirt. A spotlessly clean place is 
the greatest advertisement and the biggest asset. How 
many lunch rooms we have inspected to find the counter 
boys in dirty aprons, the menu fly specked and soiled, 
the plates and set up spotted with food from another 
guest. Can you blame the patron for ordering lightly 
and never coming back? 

Thank goodness there are many restaurant mana- 
gers who have overcome this, particularly those operat- 
ing chain restaurants, but there is not the slightest ex- 
cuse for dirt and the progressive lunch room man today 
has found out that a clean sanitary lunch room costs 
less to keep clean daily than the expense of an occa- 
sional overhauling. 

Non absorbent, washable walls, ceiling and floors 
give a place the air of cleanliness, eliminates odors and 
puts the patron in a mood to relish his meal all of which 
directly reflects in the lunch check. 

There is a splendid opportunity to display tempting 
dishes back of the counter and a good manager can make 
this a powerful selling argument. 

The best authorities agree that only a few dishes 
should be listed on the bill of fare, for there of course 
is the constant danger of "left overs.** Many lunch room 



1 2 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

owners have limited their dishes requiring preparation, 
but by attractive display converted the patron to sand- 
wiches, pastry and fruits requiring practically no time to 
serve and incidentally getting the customer out quickly 
to make room for others. 

The lunch room with twenty-four hours service has 
a great advantage over the higher grade restaurant for 
even though the rent is high, continuous service far 
more than offsets this. One owner, claims that 49 per 
cent of his receipts are at odd hours, not at regular meal 
time. There has been considerable discussion among 
hotel men about lunch rooms next door or near by draw- 
ing away their patrons. It strikes me as rather amusing 
that a lunch room man can make a profit on the hotel 
guest with only his lunch room to pay his rent, light, 
overhead, etc., while the hotel sells his patron a room, 
meals, cigars and gets pay for his wants in general. Cer- 
tainly there should be no complaint from the hotel man 
if his lunch room neighbor serves his guest with what he 
wants and at a price the patron prefers to pay. The 
hotel man's best remedy is to start his '' own popular 
priced lunch room. Most of the traveling public prefers 
a light breakfast quickly served and as the evening meal 
is quite expensive, economy through the day on eating 
is the common practice. 

Mr. F. J. Richards of Lincoln, Nebraska, one of the 
pioneers entering the lunch room business has this to 
say: "The lunch room must meet the requirements of 
the locality. Limit your bill of fare to ham, bacon and 
eggs, small steak, pork chops, a few vegetables, cereals, 
fruit, pastry, tea and coffee. Elaborate on this as much 



Lunch Room as a Money Maker 13 

as your trade justifies and no more. Satisfy yourself 
that your place is clean. 

'The lunch room should be a place open at all 
hours; the more simple and nutritious foods and drinks 
are sold at reasonable cost on short notice. Satisfy your- 
self your place is clean, cooking good, though plain, good 
bread, pastry and coffee. A lunch room is a classless 
place. Social and financial differences are forgotten on 
a stool at a lunch counter. Bankers, merchants, profes- 
sional men will climb on a stool at any time regardless of 
their neighbor being in the humbler walks of life and 
the laborer or mechanic will not keep out of the lunch 
room because the 'swells' do go there. 

"Keep your lunch room open as many hours a day 
as possible, for you will find a surprising percentage of 
your receipts taken in between meals. I find that about 
42% of our total lunch room receipts are taken in at 
other than what we call regular meal hours, and practi- 
cally all of this at the counters, not at the tables." 

There are many who eat at odd hours who would wait 
if the lunch room was not there inviting the patron to 
come in. 

The public will not patronize a lunch room solely 
because it is cheaper, but when they find they can sat- 
isfy their appetite with well cooked food for about half 
what they are accustomed to paying in high class restau- 
rants, they are glad to patronize it. 



The Merchandising of Food 

By FRANK G. BOTHWELL 

National Secretary International Stewards Association 

Address Given at the Hotel Show, Chicago 

In preparing this article upon the subject of mer- 
chandising of food I was reluctant to do so, feeling that 
it was a matter of such vital importance in our business 
that it was doubtful if I could offer any tangible assist- 
ance. After carefully considering the matter I believe 
that possibly I may be able to point out some of the 
things which must be considered if you are to determine 
the actual cost of the different dishes served. 

The present high cost of foodstuffs, and the con- 
stantly increasing demands of labor are such as to neces- 
sitate that selling price be determined along common- 
sense, scientific, business lines and not as you have done 
in years gone by, for you have felt that if your selling 
price was 1 00% on the food cost that it would not only 
take care of the overhead expense, but the profit as well 
— I concede that this has been true because, with the ex- 
ception of a few instances, foodstuffs and labor have 
been in a practically normal condition, but they have 
changed, and today conditions are such that it is im- 
perative that you pursue the policy of determining the 
actual cost of the foodstuffs, and add thereto the per- 
centage of the overhead expense and profit. To illus- 
trate^ — I will concede that a cup of coffee with the sugar 
and cream, in so far as the raw material is concerned, 
can be made for two and one-half cents per cup, but 

14 \ x 



The Merchandising of Food 1 5 

when all of the overhead expense has been added, its 
actual cost is between six and seven cents per cup, and 
this holds good with every article on your bill of fare. 
I sent a * 'Questionnaire,* * covering in a large meas- 
ure most of the items which govern the cost of operation 
of your dining room, to upwards of 500 of the leading 
hotel and restaurant men throughout the country, and I 
was somewhat surprised to find that the percentages in 
different localities were similar to one another. 

Chart Shows Profit 

You will notice, by referring to the chart, that in 
hotel restaurants the percentage cost of merchandise is 
45.26% and that the percentage of overhead expense is 
49.92%, leaving a profit of 5.72%. Had the selling price 
been based upon the old idea of 1 00% of the food cost, 
then there would have been a loss of 4.28% in the res- 
taurants, not in a hotel, the results would have been the 
same either way, as the food cost was 50% — but in the 
popular priced restaurants the old way would have 
meant a reduction of 10% in profits. 

It is most essential, in the merchandising of foods, 
that you know the number of portions which are served 
of the various articles on your bill of fare. I say that it 
is essential because there, unfortunately, are certain 
dishes which must be sold at a rather small margin of 
profit, while there are other dishes from which the profit 
is sufficiently large as to offset the small profit of other 
dishes, so that if you are not constantly in touch with the 
character of the foodstuffs being sold, you are not in a 



16 



Lunch Room as a Money Maker 



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The Merchandising of Food 1 7 

position to even things up. If you do not already keep 
such a record it is advisable that you do so at once, and 
you will learn much that will surprise you, for instance, 
you will learn that your coffee sales are between ten and 
fifteen per cent of your gross sales, and that if your sell- 
ing price of meats is lower than it should be, that your 
sales are proportionately too large, reducing your per- 
centage of profit and, if this condition is so with the 
other articles of small gain, you will find that you are 
operating your restaurant at a much smaller profit than 
if you knew the character of your sales. 

Knowledge of Sales Necessary 

In so far as your payroll is concerned, a matter of 
great importance is to know the comparative amount of 
sales made by each waiter, so that waiters, whose sales 
are disproportionately smaller than others, can be 
weeded out — this not only gets rid of the inefficient wait- 
ers, but speeds up your service. Another payroll item, 
and one of more expense than most of you imagine, is 
your labor turnover. I mean, that if you have made 
changes in your kitchen crew you will find that your 
kitchen food percentage will increase three or four per 
cent a day for three or four days following, and that if 
changes are made in the pantries, or bakeshop, that the 
percentage in these departments will increase from one 
to three per cent, so I believe that I am warranted in 
saying that your labor turnover will be from $50.00 to 
$75.00 every time you discharge an employee. 

In referring to the chart you will notice the differ- 
ence in the payroll percentage of the hotel restaurants, 
first-class restaurants and popular priced restaurants. 



1 8 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

This is caused by the fact that in restaurants, outside of 
a hotel, the heaviest meal is luncheon and this necessi- 
tates the employment of a large number of extra waiters 
for that meal only, and at a larger wage than if employed 
steadily. 

I believe that it is unnecessary for me to explain to 
you the percentage differences, in other items on the 
chart, as you are all familiar with the operation of places 
of this character. 

Cafeterias Do Big Business 

While the items which go to make up the overhead 
expense in cafeterias do not differ, to such a very large 
extent, it is because of the fact that they feed five or six 
times as many persons with the same amount of help 
as are fed in the restaurants and hotels — it is apparent 
that the large percentage of profit is due to volume of 
business done. 

A majority of the Industrial Cafeterias serve meals 
at 25 cents each, hence the high percentage of food cost. 
To avoid the constant changing of help they are paid 
about the same wages as they could earn if employed in 
the plant, causing a very high payroll percentage, and 
while there is no charge made for rent, heat, light, ice, or 
power, the loss is 1 1 .28%, the companies feeling that 
they are amply repaid through satisfaction and content- 
ment of employees. 

Repeatedly the attention of restaurant men has 
been called to the listing of too many articles of food on 
the bill of fare but, as yet, little or nothing has been done 
in the matter. This causes losses through the spoiling of 
foodstuffs that are much greater than you would im- 



The Merchandising of Food 19 

agine, and you are not going to stop these losses until 
you eliminate a large number of the dishes that are now 
listed on your bill of fare. 

Portioning and Pricing Vital 

One of the most important factors tending to an 
increase in profits is that of a sensible portioning, and 
pricing, of foods — for example — we will say that a pie 
costs thirty cents. If it is cut in six portions, and sold at 
ten cents per cut, then your gross profit is 100%, but 
if it is cut into five portions and sold at fifteen cents per 
cut, not only will your patrons be better satisfied but 
your gross profit will be 1 50%. On the other hand, por- 
tions, and prices, of salad served in the average restau- 
rant are too large. If a smaller portion be served, at a 
smaller price, there will be a surprisingly large increase 
in the number of portions sold daily — this is also true as 
to berries, fruits, breakfast foods, etc. 

To my mind the most important thing to know, in 
any business, is the actual overhead expense, and I trust 
that you do know. If not, it is time that you did and 
you had better begin at once for it will make a decided 
difference in your profits. 

I am preparing a set of "questionnaires" which will 
go deeper into this subject, not only as regards restau- 
rants, but also clubs, cafeterias, coffee shops, and indus- 
trial cafeterias, and I shall send them to caterers through- 
out the country, with the hope that men of our profes- 
sion are sufficiently interested in their f ellowmen to give 
me all the information possible, that we may arrive at an 
intelligent understanding as to what is to be considered 
as the expense to be added to the food cost, in pricing 



20 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

articles on the bill of fare, so that the merchandising of 
food may be done in a business-like manner, and with a 
fair profit. 

Relative to the different cuts of meats, and also the 
different grades of beef, loins and ribs, mutton, lamb, in 
order to arrive at the actual cost of the strip and tender- 
loin, regardless of the price paid for the loin, it is neces- 
sary that credit be given for the other cuts at the price 
for which they may be purchased and that while the cost 
of the strip, and tenderloin, may seem high it is because 
flanks cannot be used for steaks. Neither can the suet 
or fat be used with the tenderloin, hence hotel and res- 
taurant men should pay particular attention to the trim 
and cut of their requirements, for if a loin has a wide 
flank, or too much fat, then the cost of the strip is in- 
creased, and the same applies to the rib, for if the rib is 
wide, or heavy, at the chuck end, then the cost of each 
portion of roast beef served in the dining room is greater 
than it should be. 

No. 1 FULL LOIN 

Weight Per Cut Per Pound Totals 

Strip ]&y 2 25.34 .85 15.72 

Flank and Trimmings 12# 16.78 .10 1.22 

Tenderloin 6^ 9.25 .85 5.74 

Butt \7y 2 23.97 .35 6.12 

Fat 9 12.33 .11 .99 

Bones 9 12.33 .01^ .14 

73 100.00% 29.93 

73 100.00% .41 29.93 



The buyer who is careful and discriminating in 
these important items soon finds himself well paid, for 
short ribs of beef can be bought for considerably less 



The Merchandising of Food 21 

than can the rib roast, flank meat, and beef suet, much 
cheaper than beef loins, and this applies to all meats as 
well — lamb racks, lamb loins, pork loins, veal cuts, ham 
and bacon — in fact everything in the meat line. 

The first, and most important, step the capable 
buyer takes is to find a responsible house to do business 

WHOLE SHEEP 

Weight Per Cut Per Pound Totals 

Rack : Ay 8.17 

Loin 754 14.42 .53% 6.31 

Leg \\y 4 21.63 .26 2.93 

Shoulder 9 17.31 .15 1.35 

Stewing 9!/ 2 17.79 .14 1.29 

Breast 5 9.62 .14 .70 

Fat 4 7.70 .10 .40 

Bones , \y 4 3.36 .01 .02 

52 100.00% 13.00 

Whole Sheep 52 100.00% .25 13.00 



with, for a reliable house is a valuable asset to the buyer, 
and he should be as careful in this matter as he is in the 
selection of his meats. 

It is impracticable to give a table showing what a 
steak, chop, or cutlet, should weigh, as that is governed 
by the price received — first decide upon the size of the 
portion to be served — ascertain its cost and add to that 
your percentage of overhead expense, and the profit — 
you will then have arrived at the proper selling price. 

The percentages shown in the chart were compiled 
from answers to questionnaires received from all parts 
of the country and are therefore authoritative. We can 
safely say that restaurant, and hotel men, will be anx- 
iously awaiting the next contribution upon this impor- 
tant subject. 



Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 

By ERNEST B. HORWATH 
Horwath & Horwath, New York 

Analyzing a Lunch Room to Put It on a Paying Basis 

Question No. 1 

I am a subscriber as well as a constant reader of 
The American Restaurant, which I consider to be the 
best restaurant and hotel magazine published. 

In reading over the above I have paid particular 
attention to your department although I never consid- 
ered we would need advice for the proper conducting of 
our business, but right at the present time I am badly 
in need of your help. 

Some time ago we opened a lunch room in connec- 
tion with our hotel, and it has been a losing venture from 
the time we started, and I am unable to put it on a pay- 
ing basis so therefore am asking you for assistance. 

Below please find a statement of the business for 
the month of January, 1 92 1 : 

Receipts 

Cash $3,708.43 

Plus amount allowed for feeding employees 
from other departments who are fed from 
this kitchen (no credit allowed for the 14 
employees in this department as their meals 

22 



Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 23 

are considered part of their salary), 1,360 

meals at 25 cents 340.00 

Total Receipts $4,048.00 

Expenses 

Merchandise (foodstuffs) $2,993.51 

Wages 1,121.09 

Rent 33.33 

Gas and coal 75.00 

Insurance 20.00 

Ice 35.00 

Electricity 36. 1 5 

Freight, express, cartage, replacing equipment 

and sundries 1 19.85 

Total Expenses $4,433.93 

Recapitulation 

Expense and merchandise $4,433.93 

Receipts 4,048.43 

Total LOSS ...$ 385.50 

Enclosed herewith please find two menus such as we 
are using in our lunch room. As well as the a la carte 
service we are serving a business men's lunch from 
1 1 : 30 to 2:00 at 35 cents per plate. The average is 
about 60 to 80 customers. The meal consists of choice 
of two meats or fish, one vegetable, potatoes, bread and 
butter, and coffee. An extra charge is made for soup 
and pastry. Not considering overhead expense, just us- 



24 



Lunch Room as a Money Maker 



Fruit in 
Season — 



Grape Fruit (%) — 15 Baked Apple 10 

Sliced Banana, Milk 10 Baked Apple, Cream 15 



Sliced Banana, Cream 15 Apple Sauce. 

Stewed Prunes 15 

Cantaloupe 

Sliced Orange 10 



.10 



Berries 
Berries, Cream. 



Cereals, 



Corn Flakes, Milk 15 Oatmeal, Milk 

Corn Flakes, Cream 20 Oatmeal, Cream. 



.15 

.20 



Shredded Wheat, Milk 15 Grape Nuts, Milk 15 



Shredded Wheat, Cream 20 Grape Nuts, Cream. 

Milk Toast 20 French Toast _ 



Oysters — On Half-Shell, % doz 30 Fried Oysters, dozen 75 

On Half -Shell, dozen 60 Oyster Stew 35 

Fried Oysters, y 2 doz 40 

We Serve Oysters in all Styles 



Soup- 



Special Clam Chowder 15 Assorted Soups 15 



Steaks, Small Steak 

Chops, Sirloin Steak 

Etc. — Pork Chops 

Lamb Chops 

Ham, Broiled or Fried- 
Bread, Butter and 



50 Bacon, Broiled or Fried 35 

75 Ham, two Eggs 45 

50 Bacon, two Eggs 45 

50 Hamburger Steak 35 

30 Pork Sausage „ 30 

Plain Fried Potatoes served with 
above orders 



Eggs and Boiled Eggs (2) 30 Plain Omelette 35 

Omelettes — Fried Eggs (2) 30 Cheese Omelette 40 

Scrambled Eggs (2) 30 Tomato Omelette 40 

Poached Eggs on Toast 35 Spanish Omelette — 45 



Sand- 
wiches — 



Potatoes — 


Plain Fried 

French Fried 

Lyonnaise „ 


10 

15 

15 


Hash Brown 


15 




Stewed in Cream 

Au Gratin 


15 

25 



Ham 1 

Hot Ham 15 

Fresh Ham 15 Frankfurter 10 



Egg 

Ham and Egg. 



.15 

.20 



Cheese 10 

Pork 15 

Hot Pork, Gravy 15 

Sardine 20 

Hot Roast Beef, Gravy 15 



Hamburger 10 

Combination 15 

Western 2 

Cannibal „1 



Pastry, Pie, per cut 10 Griddle Cakes, Maple Syrup 15 

Etc. — Pie, a la Mode 15 Ice Cream 05 

Home Made Rolls 10 Doughnuts 10 

All Baked Goods Used are Home-Made 



Beverages — 


Coffee, with Cream 10 Instant Postum. 

Coffee -05 Milk 

Tea, pot 10 Cocoa 


10 

05 

10 


Specials — 


Special Dinner Served from 11:30 to 2:00 P. M _ 

Frankfurters, Potato Salad, Bread and Butter 

Hot Pork and Beans, Bread and Butter 


35c 

40c 

15c 



Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 25 

Business Men's Lunch Served from 11:30 to 2 P. M. 50c 
Special Dinner Served from 5:30 to 8 P. M. 65c 

Fruit in Season — 

Grape Fruit (Y 2 ) 20 Sliced Banana, Cream 20 Stewed Prunes 15 
Sliced Orange 15 Baked Apple 15 Baked Apple, Cream 20 

Cereals, Etc. — 

Corn Flakes, Milk 15 Corn Flakes, Cream 20 Shredded Wheat, Milk 15 

Shredded Wheat, Cream 20 Milk Toast 20 Oatmeal, Milk 15 

Oatmeal, Cream 20 Grape Nuts, Milk 15 

Grape Nuts, Cream 20 French Toast 25 

Fish — 

White Fish, Broiled 50 Lake Trout 50 Pan Fish 40 

Soups — 

Special for day 15 Assorted Soups 15 

Steaks, Chops, Etc. — 

Small Steak 55 Sirloin Steak $1.00 Pork Chops 55 

Lamb Chops 55 Ham, Broiled or Fried 40 

Bacon, Broiled or Fried 40 Ham, two eggs 50 

Bacon, two eggs 50 Hamburger Steak 40 Pork Sausage 30 

Eggs and Omelets — 

Boiled Eggs (2) 25 Fried Eggs (2) 25 Scrambled Eggs (3) 30 

Poached Eggs on Toast 40 Plain Omelette 40 

Cheese Omelette 45 Tomato Omelette 45 

Spanish Omelette 45 

Potatoes — 

Plain Fried 10 French Fried 15 Lyonnaise 20 Hash Brown 15 
Stewed in Cream 15 Au Gratin 25 

Sandwiches — 

Ham 15 Hot Ham 20 Cheese 15 Pork 20 

Sardine 20 Egg 15 Hot Roast Beef, Gravy 20 

Ham and Egg 25 Hamburger 15 Combination 20 

Western 25 Cannibal 15 Chicken 

Pastry, Etc. — 

Pie, per cut 10 and 15 Pie, a la Mode 20 Home Made Rolls 15 

Griddle Cakes, Maple Syrup 20 Ice Cream 10 

Doughnuts 15 Home-Made Cake 10 

All Baked Goods Used are Home-Made 

Beverages — 

Coffee, cream 10 Tea, Pot with Cream 15 Instant Postum 15 

Milk 10 Cocoa 10 

Specials — 

Hot Pork and Beans, Bread and Butter 20 
Oysters — Fried (% dozen) 45 Stew 35 



26 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

ing cost of food and crediting merchandise it will run 
about as follows: Merchandise, $15.00; Receipts, 
$24.00; Profits, $9.00. If the checks are averaged for 
the business men's lunch they will run about forty-six 
to forty-eight cents. Of course we do not credit more 
than the thirty-five cents when taking into considera- 
tion the cost and receipts of the lunch. 

I assume that you answer these "knotty problems'* 
through the columns of the American Restaurant only, 
but would appreciate it very much if you would drop 
me a few lines personally as soon as you have arrived at 
the conclusion in figuring our matter out as you can see 
we stand to lose a large amount of money while await- 
ing your answer in the magazine. 

Answer No. 1 

First of all we wish to compliment you for the in- 
telligent manner in which you presented the question, 
by giving us the necessary information to your ex- 
penses, and sending us copies of your bills of fare. 

In the following we have rearranged the figures 
submitted by you, and as there may be some question 
as to the credit allowed for meals served to employees 
of other departments being at cost price instead of a 
sales valuation and thus affecting the various ratios of 
expenses to total sales, in the second tabulation we have 
allowed a credit to sales 45c per meal, instead of 25c 
as you show. 

It might also be assumed that your 35c business 
men's luncheons materially affected the whole situation. 
In the second tabulation we have therefore credited the 
restaurant at 47c (a la carte valuation) for the 70 thirty- 



Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 



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28 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

five cent covers served daily (25 days per month). Other 
restaurant men can therefore easily compare their results 
with yours on a uniform basis. 

In the following we will briefly comment on the 
various costs as shown in the above tabulations: 
Wages : 

The cost per dollar sale for salaries in a restaurant 
of your class ordinarily varies from a minimum of 20c 
to a maximum of 30c, with the probable approximate 
average of 25c. In the first tabulation you show 27.69c 
and in the latter 24.80c. There is evidently not much 
opportunity for effecting a saving here. 
Rent: 

The rent ($33.33) you are charging against the 
restaurant department is very low as the cost amounts 
to less than 1 c per dollar sale. The rental cost in a res- 
taurant usually varies from 2.5c to 8c and even 10c per 
dollar sale. 
Gas and Coal: 

The charge for gas and coal used for cooking varies 
from 1.5c to 2.0c per dollar sale and therefore your re- 
sult is above criticism. 
Insurance : 

Your expense here is not out of proportion. 
Ice: 

A bill of $35.00 for ice in a restaurant of your size, 
resulting in a cost per dollar sale of less than 1 c is legiti- 
mate. 
Electricity : 

The cost of electricity, varies according to the local 
rate, but your bill of $36.15 (less than 1c per dollar 
sale) , is reasonable. 



Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 29 

Total Expenses (exclusive of merchandise) : 

Your total cost per dollar sale in either of the above 
methods of figuring is less than 40c per dollar sale, and 
for your class of restaurant is beyond criticism. 
Merchandise Cost: 

Here is where your trouble apparently lies. De- 
pending upon Bills of Fare prices, size of portions, etc., 
the cost per dollar sale of the merchandise varies from 
35c in the very high class restaurants in the large cities 
to an allowable maximum of 55c in a restaurant of your 
character. 

Using the first method of tabulating your results 
you show a cost of 73.94c per dollar sale, or presenting 
the figures in the most favorable light in the second tabu- 
lation you still show a cost of 66.22c per dollar sale. 

We have records of many restaurants with similar 
bill of fare prices and doing approximately the same 
volume of business that you do, who are showing a mer- 
chandise cost of 52c per dollar sale, and even less, and 
we therefore feel that there is no reason why you should 
not do likewise. 

Knowing that your general returns on the mer- 
chandise are poor, the next step would be to determine 
upon which individual commodities you are not receiv- 
ing the proper percentage of gross profit. In other words 
you must install and operate what is commonly known 
as a "Food Cost Accounting System." Several differ- 
ent public accounting firms specialize in this work and 
we recommend that you engage one of them to assist 
you in installing and operating the necessary system. 

When you stop to realize that a reduction of only 
10c on each dollar sale (which should be easily possi- 



30 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

ble) means a saving to you of approximately $400.00 
per month, you will see how important it is to start this 
work. 

Editor* s Note: We hope that several of our read- 
ers will submit their views on the above proposition. If 
any desire the names of the Public Accountants special- 
izing in Food Cost Accounting work, we will be pleased 
to furnish them to any of our readers. 

Keeping Storeroom Records 
Question No. 2 

I notice in the last issue of The American Res- 
taurant, some advice you give gratis in regard to cost 
finding, etc. Would like to ask you a few questions 
along this line. Would it be possible and reasonable to 
install a storeroom check system without keeping a regu- 
lar storeroom man? We operate a hotel of 120 rooms 
and the cafe does average business now of $75.00 per 
day. We take inventory of storeroom on the first of the 
month and can get near the profit in this way. We 
never have gotten the exact figures on profits or loss 
but estimate we get pretty close to it. 

The firm consists of father and two sons. One 
son is day clerk and the other is in charge of the kitchen 
and dining room, and is a practical chef himself. 

In this case would it in your estimation be neces- 
sary to spend any money on this or not, if so what kind 
of system do you advise and what will it cost, etc. ? 

We have three separate storerooms all very small. 



Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 3 1 

Answer No. 2 

We have always found that no matter how small 
the hotel or restaurant, that storeroom records are of 
the utmost value and importance. 

In your instance we recommend that you adopt a 
simple perpetual inventory system. Your son who acts 
as day clerk could carry out the detail in his spare time 
entering all purchases (from the original bills) and all 
issues (from the requisition slips) on the individual led- 
ger sheets or cards that can be purchased for this pur- 
pose. These sheets are ruled so as to provide a space 
for entering all goods received, another for all goods 
issued, and at the end of the month you will arrive at 
a balance which should be checked against the physical 
inventory on hand as determined by an actual count of 
the goods on the shelves. A separate sheet or card is 
used for each commodity handled in the storeroom. 
Every time goods are taken out of the storeroom a 
signed requisition must be left, covering the goods re- 
moved. 

We note you speak of three separate storerooms. 
If local conditions permit, we would strongly recommend 
concentrating all of your merchandise in one room. 

We will bring out in a few words the value to you 
of a perpetual inventory system such as we have just 
outlined. 

In case of fire in the storeroom and insurance is 
carried on merchandise, perpetual inventory records kept 
in the office safe avoid all wrangle between the fire in- 
surance adjuster and yourself. 

If an accurate perpetual record is kept of the goods 
in store, it will be unnecessary to hunt through the store- 



32 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

rooms when making up a list that you wish to order and 
keep in stock . All you need is to go through your 
records, which will give necessary information as to how 
fast you use a certain commodity and the quantity still 
on hand. 

If you decide to trust the keys of your store to some 
hired help you will always be able to tell how honest 
they are. 

Complete records and proofs will help eliminate ar- 
guments even between brothers and father and son. 

Should you not be able to purchase the perpetual 
inventory sheets or cards locally, we will be glad to fur- 
nish you with the name and address of a dealer, or sam- 
ples of the forms we recommend. 

Handling Left Overs on Cost Sheet-^Capital Necessary 
for a 1 00 Room Hotel 

Question No. 3 

The interesting articles in the January number of 
The American Restaurant prompts me to ask the fol- 
lowing questions. 

How can the cost of left-overs be figured? For in- 
stance, my sales on beef, pork, and lamb for the day are 
$111.00, cost $71.00. Per cent of profit on costs is 
56%, on sales 36%. 

In addition to this and not included I worked up a 
lot of corn beef left over, also 5 lbs. stale bread, sales 
$5.60 and $5.00 respectively. The material of each was 
figured in the costs and sales of the day previous. 

How should these items be handled on the current 
day's cost sheet? 



Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 33 

If my question is not irrelevant can you tell me how 
much ready cash (working capital) would be necessary 
and safe to have when starting to run a 1 00 room Ameri- 
can plan hotel rented at $1,200.00 per month, rates 
$3.50 to $5.00 per day. 

Supposing it to be a good hotel, well furnished and 
doing a good business but irregular. How much would 
it require for same house on European plan? Also ap- 
ply same question to a cafeteria doing $3,000.00 per 
month. 

Answer No. 3 

In the first place if it cost $71.00 to produce 
$1 10.00 in sales of beef, pork and lamb, or 56% gross 
profit on cost (64c merchandise cost of each dollar sale) 
you are not obtaining as high returns as the average of 
other restaurants show. Why not segregate the costs 
and sales of beef, pork and lamb individually and check 
each one? 

As to the left overs, if you show daily costs, and 
do not take into consideration the left overs, these daily 
figures will not be exact, but for the 28 to 31 days in 
the month they will represent a fair average. Also if 
you show in addition to daily costs the accomplished 
costs for the month, that is "to-date," these costs **to- 
date" will represent conditions as closely as is necessary. 

If you want to try to be more accurate, whoever is 
watching the costs and sales should make memorandums 
of the left overs, crediting the costs on one day and 
charging on the next. However, we do not consider 
this necessary if "to-date" figures are carried besides the 
"daily" figures. 



34 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Any sales such as "stale bread* * or clear grease or 
amount received is generally applicable as reduction of 
the total cost for the month. 

The corn beef left overs are taken care of by the 
explanation of accumulating your cost and sales figures 
for one month and beginning it over again in a new 
month. 

"Todays" cost sheet in a restaurant does not mean 
much without the "accumulated" costs and sales. ("To 
date" costs and sales.) 

As to the ready cash (working capital) necessary 
to operate a 1 00 room American Plan hotel, we assume 
that the hotel would be rented completely furnished. The 
balance sheets of hotels of this character indicate that 
from $10,000.00 to $15,000.00 would be needed as 
operating capital. Of course it all depends upon how 
soon the hotel is going to be a paying proposition. 

The European plan would make more money than 
the American plan if managed well, and the amount re- 
quired to operate it would be between the two figures 
mentioned above. 

A cafeteria doing a business of $3,000.00 per 
month would cost anywhere from $5,000.00 to $15,- 
000.00 to equip and again the question as to how soon 
it is going to be a paying proposition must be taken into 
consideration in order to determine the amount of cur- 
rent cash required. Three thousand dollars should be 
sufficient if you expect it to pay after the first month. 



Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 35 

Can I Reduce Prices? 
Question No. 4 

I have read a number of your statements and ex- 
planations in The American Restaurant with great in- 
terest. I would like to have you answer some ques- 
tions regarding certain things with which we are con- 
fronted in our little cafe. 

For 1920 our total sales were $103,000.00 and the 
cost of meat, fish, oysters and poultry amounted to $26,- 
000.00. It seems to me that this is high in view of the 
sales prices. Of course, we are not situated where we 
can secure good meat at a price that it can be purchased 
in larger centers — at least that is my opinion in the mat- 
ter. Our labor was $14,000 for the same period. We 
have employed on the average of 1 7 people in the cafe 
besides my father and myself. Do you consider this 
too much on total sales mentioned above? 

While some commodities haveTDeen reduced in cost, 
at the same time other items have advanced a little and 
labor is just the same. Our labor cost now is nearly 
1 00% more than it was in 1 9 1 7. So with all this clamor 
about prices coming down, in the face of such a condi- 
tion how can we afford to reduce our prices? 

Do you think that a cafeteria would pay in a town 
with a population of 1 2,000, where there is no large 
number of working people who do not have homes in 
this city. There are no factories, large department store 
employing people who eat out so there has always been 
a doubt in my mind as to the advisability of trying a 
cafeteria in this city. 



36 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

I would be pleased to have your replies on these 
inquiries as we are always trying to better our business. 

Answer No. 4 

In answering your inquiry, while we would like to 
go into as much detail as possible in giving you the 
proper information, we regret that on account of the 
rather meager data submitted by you we must restrict 
our reply to just general averages. 

In going through our records, we find that of each 
one dollar total receipts of a restaurant, the average re- 
ceipts for "meats, fish, oysters, and poultry" is 46.5 
cents, or the receipts of the above items comprise 46.5% 
of the total volume of business. 

Thus, in the total sales of $103,000.00 for year, 
1920, you probably sold approximately $47,895.00 
worth of "meats, fish, oysters and poultry." Taking 
against this figure your cost of $26,000.00 on these 
items, we find that you are not obtaining as large a per- 
centage of profit as the majority of other restaurants. 
We find elsewhere an average cost of 50 cents on each 
dollar sale. That is, your $47,895.00 approximate sales 
should not have cost you more than $23,947.50, pro- 
viding your portions and bill of fare prices are on a par 
with the restaurants we used for comparison. 

We assume that yours is a service restaurant, and 
therefore your payroll figure of $14,000.00 on $103,- 
000.00 total sales is so abnormally low that we feel you 
have left some figures out of your calculations. 

We find the average labor cost to be between 20 
and 30% of the sales. 



Analyzing Lunch Room Failures 37 

The conditions you mention in regards your town 
leads us to believe that a cafeteria would not be self- 
supporting. However, this could be decided by carefully 
observing how the lunch rooms are doing. 



Operating Costs in the Lunch Room 

By CLIFFORD M. LEWIS 

The modern method of figuring costs in restaurants 
has been termed the * 'percentage cost" or per dollar cost. 
Once thoroughly understood it is so simple that the 
operator of the smallest restaurant, cafeteria, or lunch 
room may use it without the dread that comes in con- 
templating long processes of bookkeeping. At the same 
time it may be adapted to the gross restaurant business 
of large amount. 

To illustrate the simplicity, we shall figure the ''per- 
centage cost" on the basis of a single dollar. When the 
principle is understood it may be carried out to as many 
dollars as any restaurant can hope to receive in a day or 
any given period. 

We will let the circle represent one dollar, marked 
off in 1 00 parts which may represent 1 00 per cent or 1 00 
cents. 

Suppose that this is one single dollar paid into the 
restaurant for food and our desire is to know what it 
has cost in raw material (food), help, rent, light, heat, 
and power, etc., to produce that dollar and what we 
shall have left for profit, because unless we can pay for 
raw material, help, rent, light, etc., and have a profit 
left, we will lose money. And we must know it at once. 

Suppose we find that food used to produce that dol- 
lar cost 39c. If the cost of food is divided by the amount 

38 



Operating Costs In the Lunch Room 



39 



received for it, the result will be the "percentage cost" as 
follows : 

1.00).3900(.39— 39% 
300 



900 
900 




Therefore the percentage cost of that food was 39 
per cent and we mark of 39 points on the diagram. 



40 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

The next step is to figure the percentage of help. 
Proceed in the same way. 

Let us assume that this help cost 26 cents. Divide 
the cost of the help by the dollar, and the percentage 
cost for help would be 26 per cent . 

We mark off 26 points on the circle and have now 
used up 65 per cent of the dollar. Food and help are 
the biggest items over which the steward and bookkeeper 
have actual control, but the proportion of rent, light, 
heat, power and other expenses which are termed "over- 
head* * are figured by the Accounting Department and 
sent to the Storeroom Bookkeeper. He follows the same 
procedure of finding what portion of the dollar received 
is used for the expenses. 

The chart of the dollar shows that the percentage 
cost of rent was 1 5 per cent, percentage cost of heat, 
light, power, laundry, etc., was 10 per cent and the per- 
centage of profit was 10 per cent. And so the exact 
cost is determined of each item that went to produce the 
dollar received. 

It is just as easy to figure a large amount as to fig- 
ure a single dollar. As a matter of fact no restaurant 
could stop operations to figure each dollar and the ex- 
ample given aims only to show the simple method of 
figuring a "per dollar'* cost and the proportion of each 
dollar for various expenses. 

The total sum received in the restaurant for food 
in one day may be $595, the raw material to produce 
that sum costing the hotel $232.05. If the cost (of 
food) is divided 



Operating Costs In the Lunch Room 4 1 

Food cost $0.39 39% 

Help cost 26 26% 

Rent cost 15 15% 

Heat, light, power, etc 10 10% 

Profit 10 10% 



$1.00 100% 

by the amount received and the result is marked off 
decimally, the per dollar cost will be shown: 

595)23205(39—39% 
1785 



5355 
5355 

Therefore it is seen that for each dollar of the $595, 
received for food, 39 cents was the cost of raw material 
and this is called the "per dollar" cost or the percentage 
cost. 

Now that the percentage cost is found to be 39 per 
cent — proceed to find the cost of help to produce each 
dollar. The steward's time table or a counting depart- 
ment will furnish the total cost of help in all the depart- 
ments that produced the restaurant receipts for the day, 
that is kitchen, dining room, bakery, pastry shop, and 
steward's department. 

Assume that this help cost $154.70 for the day. 
By dividing the cost of help by the amount received for 
food, you will have the "percentage cost" for help, 
which is in this 26 per cent. 

The percentage cost of rent and "overhead" is 
found in a similar manner. The following table shows 



42 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

the total amount received for food and the cost for each 
item to produce it: 

$595.00. Received— 100% 

Food cost $232.05 39% 

Help cost 154.70 26% 

Rent cost 89.25 15% 

Heat, light, power, etc., cost 59.50 10% 

Profit 59.50 1 0% 



$595.00 100% 



Driving Home the Cost of Wastefulness 

The Waldorf System of Lunch Rooms effectively 
employ a unique method of showing their employees 
how the operating expense is distributed. They use a 
yard stick. The divisions as shown in the illustration 
tell the story. In the sparkling house organ, the Wal- 
dorf Window, the organization is constantly in touch 
with what is going on. 

Socrates gives as his definition of man that, "man is 
he who thinks." The Waldorf System apply this prin- 
ciple to employees. To get them to think, they let the 
help in behind the scenes and show them why mistakes 
and indifference are costly, why losses and wastefulness 
reflect in the pay roll. 

A typical example of giving the help a new slant 
on their job is contained in some thought compelling 
facts given by Mr. J. S. Johnson in one of the issues 
of the Waldorf Window, their employees' magazine. 

When one coffee mug is broken, the profit of 20 
cups of coffee is gone! 

"A piece of silver lost in the garbage is equal to 
serving 12 customers without making one cent! 

"To pay for one pound of cleaning cloths we allow 
to go out of the back door, we have to get 1 8 customers 
in the front door! 

"Experts who have examined the cause of lunch 
room failures tell us a large proportion are due to waste- 

43 



44 



Lunch Room as a Money Maker 



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Driving Home the Cost of Wastefulness 45 

ful help and inattention in looking after the small leak- 
ages. 

"We may look over the products carefully when 
they arrive from the market, selecting that which should 
be used at once. 

"We may look over the fruit on our counters twice 
daily to avoid its becoming unsalable. 

"We can watch our ice boxes to see that all material 
is used and not allowed to go bad. 

"We may instruct our fellow employees as to the 
best way to cut and handle pies, meats, etc., with the 
smallest amount of waste. 

"We can watch carefully the size of orders put out 
that they will run uniform — and in many other ways 
show satisfactory results in the saving of foods. 

"But on the expense items, are we as careful as 
we might be? 

"The saving on these can be made just as great as 
the saving on fruits, vegetables, meats and other foods. 

"The records in our office show comparison be- 
tween two stores which are almost identical in floor 
space and arrangement, and the business done in each is 
almost equal, still there is a wide difference in the ex- 
pense items. 

"The loss of china and glass costs $54,600 per year. 
This means 1,057 pieces broken every day — making 
385,980 pieces per year. 

"Cleaning cloths cost $2,100 per year. 

"Lost napkins and towels cost $45,000 per year. 

"Lost silver cost $17,600 per year. This means 
68,580 pieces of silver are lost every 1 2 months. 

"Startling figures, but facts we have to face. 



46 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

"The office could supply us with other data just as 
startling, such as how much cleaning powders, brass pol- 
ish, etc., cost each year. They can show us which store 
is using these materials properly and which store is care- 
less in their use. The office also can tell us who is using 
glass towels where they should use dish towels. This is 
waste, as glass towels cost considerably more. They can 
tell us which store is careful in saving waste paper, as 
that store is credited for 1 ]/£c per lb. on every pound of 
paper they save. And so we could go through the list. 

"Take the saving on bread alone. Figures show 
that, after this matter was taken up so carefully some 
months ago, there has been a remarkable saving, owing 
to the employees getting every slice possible out of the 
loaf and then handling the bread properly that it will not 
become dry, to be discarded in the waste bread barrel. 

"Now, if every salesman on the counter, every man 
and woman in the kitchen department or dish washing 
room and every employee who handles dishes on the 
floor will analyze these few figures and then study their 
own position as to just how they can make a saving, we 
feel sure that in the next six months a big reduction can 
be shown in these expense items. 

"We want to remember that it is not only what ef- 
forts we ourselves put forth, but what the other fellow 
is doing that affects our showing. Say we are working 
in the dish washing room and a new employee is hired. 
Let us take a little pains and try to show the new mem- 
ber of our family just what carelessness means. Let us 
suggest to this fellow employee the most economical 
way to work to save both material and time. He or she 
in almost every case will thank us for our trouble and we 



Driving Home the Cost of Wastefulness 47 

will have made a new friend. If, however, our efforts 
do not accomplish the desired end, let us call the mana- 
ger's attention to it and see if he cannot persuade the 
erring one to do better." 

Appealing to employees in this way is very ef- 
fective for it makes them think most unnecessary waste 
is not so much due to indifference and the "I don't care" 
spirit as it is to thoughtlessness. Nothing will make em- 
ployees think quicker and be more careful than details 
on costs of minor extravagance. 



The Kitchen Is a Vital Factor 

By E. D. SMITH 

With the exception of those who have discovered, 
through years of experience, that "The proof of the 
Pudding is in the eating thereof," the average person 
who contemplates entering the business of feeding the 
public, whether it be the Hotel, Restaurant, Lunch 
Room or Cafeteria, invariably get the idea that the din- 
ing room is the only part of the business deserving of 
any special attention, and proceed at once to lavish most 
of their capital on gaudy decorations seemingly, inten- 
tionally disregarding altogether, the kitchen and service 
departments, upon which the success of the catering 
business depends. A good story apropos of this appeared 
in the Washington Herald some time ago, which is as 
follows : 

The architect approached the owner of the new 
hotel. "Everything is finished except the kitchen and 
the Tango Room," he reported, "and there is just $18,- 
1 07.00 left to spend on them." "Go ahead and do the 
best you can with the money," said the owner. "If 
necessary spend all of $1 07.00 on the kitchen." 

This is just about the attitude the kitchen outfitter 
has to combat in ninety-nine per cent of the cases. The 
kitchen should be large enough to contain the necessary 
apparatus, giving plenty of working space for the 
kitchen employees and should be thoroughly ventilated 
and well lighted. 

48 



The Kitchen Is a Vital Factor 49 

Although it is not advisable to install every new 
fangled idea in the way of machinery as many inven- 
tions are impractical when it comes to the actual tests, 
yet, every labor saving device should be used that will 
improve the service or lessen the number of employees. 

This will not only save the salary of the employees, 
but it will also save the price of the food they consume, 
which in these times, are an item to be taken into con- 
sideration very seriously. 

In equipping a kitchen it can be truly said that there 
is practically no criterion to guide you, as different sec- 
tions of the country, as well as different localities in the 
same section, require totally different arrangement and 
different apparatus; but there is one thing that should 
be universally observed in every kitchen North or South, 
East or West and City or Country and that is sanitation. 

There should be a National law absolutely prohibit- 
ing the use of wood in any kitchen catering to the pub- 
lic, except in cases where it is necessary, as wood forms 
a natural refuge for vermin of every specie to live and 
breed and is practically impossible to keep in a sanitary 
condition. 

In the up-to-date kitchen everything should be 
made of metal, excepting possibly the refrigerators, 
which should be made with exterior walls of cement or at 
least hard plaster, and with the exception of the refrig- 
erators and a few other fixtures, every piece of apparatus 
should set up on legs (at least 8 in. high) clear of the 
floor. 

All fixtures which are intended to contain water or 
come in contact with water, should, in their construction, 
be welded together instead of being riveted, as the rivets 



50 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

form a rough surface on which grease and dirt will col- 
lect very readily and are difficult to keep in a strictly 
sanitary condition. 

In equipping a kitchen, the kitchen engineer, if he 
be practical must be thoroughly conversant with the 
usages and customs as well as the appetite of the epicure 
in each particular locality in which he is operating. 

If it be in the South he must know what style of 
equipment is necessary to prepare "Fried Chicken South- 
ern Style," as the "Old Colored Mammy,** the appetite 
of the epicure and the Good Lord intended it should be 
prepared. He should also possess the requirements 
necessary in preparing Rice, Candied Yams, Corn Bread, 
Biscuits, Ochre and other dainty dishes (if properly pre- 
pared) popular in the South. 

If in the East, the proper equipment for the prep- 
aration of the French dishes so popular in that section, 
while in the Middle States another style of equipment 
necessary in the preparation of the more substantial, and 
really more sensible dishes, popular in that section, must 
be provided and so on through every section or locality 
in the country. 

Then turning our attention to the preparation of 
foods for the sick the same rule prevails, for the Kitchen 
Engineer should know the proper apparatus needed to 
perform the functions for which they are intended. Take 
for instance the seemingly unimportant item of Toast to 
which so little thought is given even though it forms the 
sole item of food in most cases of a very sick patient and 
yet, so few people really know how to make toast, or at 
least make it as it should be made, for the reason that 






The Kitchen Is a Vital Factor 5 1 

they have not been furnished the proper tools and the 
necessary instructions for doing so. 

It is not the purpose of this article to delve into 
the intricacies of the culinary art, but to impress upon 
the minds of restaurant men that they can get the proper 
equipment for an efficient and economical kitchen if 
they will proceed in the proper manner and that "Modus 
Operandi" is to get hold of some reliable person whose 
business it is to manufacture and supply the tools to per- 
form the functions for which they are intended in the 
proper way and in an efficient and economical manner. 

The cook in the ordinary kitchen is rather inclined 
to continue along with the same style of apparatus that 
has been used by their craft since time out of mind, 
and because of this attitude they continue to cook in an 
ordinary place, but the chef in the up-to-date kitchen is 
ever alert for the new ideas that are making their ap- 
pearance very frequently, and although in a great many 
instances it means the revising of every known prece- 
dent, yet they seldom hesitate to take up with the new 
ideas if convinced the adoption of it will be advantage- 
ous. 

Among experts in the culinary line, the idea of 
roasting by steam (or some other medium other than 
the time honored custom of roasting in the oven of the 
range or some other method of direct dry heat) has long 
been uppermost in their minds until some years ago the 
Steam Meat Roaster was developed; it immediately be- 
came popular not only because of its economy in opera- 
tion, but its economy in obviating the loss incident in 
roasting in the oven of the range, which, in the case of 



52 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

beef, there is a loss of 1 9 per cent and pork 34 per cent, 
while with steam there is no loss at all. 

This is one of many items which should interest the 
owner of every kitchen and is only mentioned to give 
some idea of the value of going to the proper source to 
get the best results. 

The present popularity of the Cafeteria is proof 
of the statements herein contained, as in the Cafeteria 
you get quick service from a counter, on which are taste- 
fully displayed what food they have to offer, but if those 
patrons of Cafeterias (or for any other kind of eating 
place) should ever see in many of the kitchens, I am in- 
clined to think their appetites would get a severe shock. 

The Cafeteria Counter should (like the kitchen) be, 
first of all, sanitary and in conjunction with sanitation 
it should be attractive to the eye and so arranged that 
the patron can select his lunch or dinner with the same 
scrupulous care as he would were he preparing it at 
home. 



Mistakes in Lunch Room Operation 

By AN OWNER 

According to expert evidence the restaurant busi- 
ness is the most disorderly of modern undertakings. 

Cost- Accounting is a thing unknown, bookkeeping 
is an evil, and accounting, even in its most rudimentary 
forms, is abhorred. 

Only the biggest hotels have lately inaugurated 
strict Cost-Accounting systems. 

Before, the cooks could do as they pleased. And 
where modern cooks are working, the experienced res- 
taurant man knows what that means. 

However, meat, today, must be weighed with the 
precision scale, if one wants to clear expenses. No 
longer can a cook go and trim and cut, until only the 
core is left. 

Shrinkage in cooking is enormous; wastage is fear- 
ful, and by-products are mountainous. 

There is no exact data. Only one man has care- 
fully worked out charts, and he makes a business of 
selling them. Nobody wants to buy them. 

Most restaurant owners can tell what his stuff costs. 
He has a more or less hazy idea that meat shrinks in 
cooking, but how much that shrinkage is, that he does 
not know. 

He presumes that the shrinkage is unequal, but 
how the different percentages are distributed, that he 
does not know. That the shrinkage amounts to as much 

53 



54 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

as forty-eight per cent, in some pieces, that he does not 
know. 

One has but to pick up a modern bill of fare, and 
one may see at once, that corned beef sells for less than 
butt-beef, and yet, in corned beef the shrinkage is forty- 
two per cent. Besides, there is a tremendous waste from 
bones. If one take "corned round," which is the same 
as butt, except that it is swollen with pickle, but is prac- 
tically boneless, and if one pays for it 24c a pound, in- 
stead of 23c, as for navel, then that corned round costs 
after cooking sixty-four cents a pound. If one give four 
ounces of meat, then the meat, exclusive of overhead, 
costs sixteen cents. And yet, many restaurants sell this 
beef for forty-five cents a portion, giving cabbage, bread 
and butter and potatoes with it. Assuming that the per 
capita overhead is twenty-five cents, cost of bread and 
butter three cents, potatoes three cents, cabbage three 
cents, and profit per patron five cents, then this meat 
should sell for fifty-five cents. That is the legitimate 
price. Yet, what caterer has the courage to charge this 
price? And what restaurant has the nerve to serve but 
four ounces of meat? What owner knows how many 
ounces of meat his cook is dishing out? 

And then "overhead." Who knows his per capita 
overhead? Ask any small restaurant man what his over- 
head is, and he will look in the air, to see what you mean 
by overhead. 

As I said before, Cost-Accounting is a hazy science 
to the restaurant owner. He sells by the "hit," and loses 
by the "miss" method. Any day one may hear restau- 
rant owners say: "I wonder what my table d'hote really 
costs me?" They know they sell for a dollar, but 



Mistakes in Restaurant Operation 55 

whether they make a profit, that they do not know. 
They can only tell by looking at their bank-balances. 

If they lose, they raise the prices. How they raise 
them, is quite immaterial to them. Whether the raises 
are just, and whether they really raise the prices on 
dishes on which they lose, that they do not know. It is 
for this reason that there is so much complaint among 
patrons. Most of these prices are unfair. 

Why should a portion of potatoes sell for 1 5 c, while 
roast beef sells for sixty? The potatoes cost three cents, 
while the roast beef costs forty. One sells with an in- 
crease of five hundred per cent, and the other with fifty. 
And yet, potatoes are plentiful, while meat is scarce. 
There is no need to preserve potatoes, but every law of 
God and man demands that meat be carefully preserved. 
I came across a case lately, where a firm was losing 
money. They had a manager, who had been engaged 
on the strength of a "several years" reference. He was 
neither manager nor caterer. He was just a boob. 

He cost the house $2,000 a month. And yet, the 
house was willing to salary this man, and refused to 
consider young and able fellows, simply because the in- 
competent had been in one place for several years. As 
though "Stick-to-the-job'ishness" was a guarantee of 
ability. It is more often a guarantee of slothfulness. 
Only cowards are afraid to move. 

There is that old saying: That "Rolling stones 
gather no moss,*' but today that saying is only valued 
by bonding companies. Every progressive employer 
knows, that a "sticky* * man, can't have any all around 
experience. 



56 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Rolling stones gather no moss, neither do they 
gather experience. It is the traveler who is versatile. 
It is the man of the world who is unbiased. He is the 
energetic fellow who has healthy blood in his veins. His 
eye is clear, his courage high. His mind is free and his 
vision not bleared from looking at the same old ledger. 

Why don't employers look around and see whether 
there is no fresh blood among the fellows in their ranks? 
Why do they stick to these old worn-out carriage horses? 
It is only in the catering business that merit finds no 
reward? 

A friend of mine took control of a place lately, 
where old fashioned methods had run the truck into a 
groove. The place was losing money. Everybody stole. 
Nobody cared. 

This friend of mine is a young man ; not a boy, but 
a fellow who has seen the world. He has no references 
of many years standing. Yet, the first month, he re- 
duced the losses by five hundred dollars; the second 
month by a further five hundred dollars ; and if the firm 
had had vision enough to give him charge, he would 
have been able to run the place at a profit. As it was 
he was doing the work which the manager was supposed 
to do. 

And it was all done by a trick. "Cost- Accounting I" 
By analyzing sales. By daily balance sheets. 

To analyze sales is comparable to sitting on a pa- 
tient's bed, with the finger on his pulse, and the ther- 
mometer in his mouth. Every transaction shows, with 
the spotlight turned on it. 

What is there that shows the short-comings of a 
business, or of a manager, better than anlyzing sales? 



Mistakes in Restaurant Operation 57 

Better than this nothing has ever been invented? 
What is the standard by which a manager should be 
judged? Results! And what shows results? Analyz- 
ing sales! 

By keeping track of one's stock; by leaving a ticket 
on each item with the number of contents ; by looking at 
one's stock twice a day, theft can be easily located, and 
the culprit pointed out. 

Analyze your sales, and locate your losses! 

Investigate the leaks ! Close the back-doors ! 

Eliminate the stumbling blocks! Weed out the 
causes of your ruin! 

By going over your sheet, item by item, the causes 
of your losses will become glaringly evident. 

In the restaurant business there are tricks. "C'est 
tout un true," as the Frenchmen say. If everything is 
left to the chef, the business will go to the wall. 

It is to the chef's interest that the ice-boxes be clear. 
If there is lots of stuff on hand, he will always be worry- 
ing how to get rid of it. That induces waste. 

Instead, the buying should be so close, that he will 
always be worrying on how to manage with so little. 
That induces economy. 

The steward must not be allowed to buy at ran- 
dom, because the higher the bills, the bigger the rake-off. 

By increasing the patronage, the overhead is auto- 
matically reduced. By advertising, by giving sound 
values, by serving homemade breads, by featuring diete- 
tic vegetables, and by insisting upon courteous and 
prompt service, the number of patrons can be increased. 

All however depends upon the manager. If he is a 
slob, then all advice is wasted. "Like Master, like Ser- 



58 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

vant!" says the proverb, and truer word never was 
spoken. In a restaurant the help takes its cue from the 
manager. 

By comparing the opening with the closing stock 
the actual usage is ascertained. This usage should be 
covered by sales. If it is not, then there has been waste. 
The chef must be held responsible. He must show sales, 
or legitimate advantageous use, for all stock consumed. 
If he is so held he will see to it, that every order actually 
passes the checker. And if checked, it will be sold; be- 
cause the waiter and the checker are jointly responsible 
for entries on the checks. Sometimes checkers make 
motions; these must be watched. It would not be the 
first time that checker and waiter worker together. Often 
a glass of whisky, at the right time, lubricates the bear- 
ings. 

It is a well-known fact, that in easy going hotels 
two orders must be cooked, to sell one. 

But the sheet will show all this. It works like an 
automaton. 

Daily balances permit the pointing out of fresh 
losses. The blame can be placed. 

By adding the sheet expenses, with the daily un- 
seen expenses (including overhead) and comparing the 
total with the receipts, the daily profit or loss can be 
ascertained. 

A recapitulation of "short" and "over" places em- 
phasis upon unsound transactions, and permits daily 
quick comparisons. 

The menu must constantly be scrutinized. Losses 
must be eliminated. In their place should be put win- 



Mistakes in Restaurant Operation 59 

ners ; read your trade-journals ; buy books written on the 
subject; keep abreast of the times. 

Kidneys, hearts, livers and vegetarian dishes are 
winners. Use them frequently, and serve them appe- 
tizingly. Change their mode of preparation constantly. 
Invent new ways of serving old dishes, use your by- 
products. Employ onions and green peppers. They 
flavor the food. Employ the cassolette and the rame- 
quin. Push the paper-case. Use the papilotte. But 
above all, use vegetarian dishes. 

On no modern bill of fare should the * 'Vegetarian 
Dinner" be missing. (A poached egg with different 
kinds of vegetables.) 

There is money in vegetarian dishes, and to list 
them clears the ice-box of left-over garnishes. Price them 
attractively! 

In taking the sheet, figure the coffee used. Com- 
pare with it the number of cups sold. If a pound gives 
fifty cups, find whether fifty cups were sold to every 
pound used. The checks will show it. 

Then compare the price realized with the cost con- 
sumed. 

Figure your overhead. 

How much is your per capita overhead? 

Which is the best way to reduce it? 






The True Goal of the Lunch Room 

By KURT HEPPE 

It has often been said that restaurant men are mer- 
cenaries. The public frequently claims that restaurants 
are taking advantage of patrons. People assume that 
the eating business is carried on for profit only. 

This is not so. Competition in itself is against it. 
Restaurant owners must supply better foods than their 
rivals, if they want to succeed. 

It is the restaurant which does better than others, 
which wins out. The tendencies of the times are toward 
pure food. The press is helpful only to those who em- 
brace high ideals. 

To achieve success the restaurant must supply 
food, which is at one and the same time wholesome and 
beneficial. The restaurant owner is therefore held to 
study of the science of dietetics. Economics he learns 
through practice. But dietetics he can only learn 
through instruction. 

In this connection it is interesting to note the mate- 
rial progress which is being made by vegetarian restau- 
rants. 

Vegetarianism in itself is not commendable. In 
Switzerland, where vegetarianism has had full play for 
generations, it has been observed, that the best human 
product is achieved with mixed diets. 

We do not want to contradict the statistics of vege- 
tarians. Perhaps vegetarians do live to a higher age 

60 



The True Goal of the Lunch Room 61 

than do mixed dietarians; perhaps they are more perse- 
vering; but the mixed dietarian is the better man. 

What the restaurant must guard against is the serv- 
ice of a one-sided diet. And also the service of denat- 
ured foods. 

Tendency among modern food producers has been 
to refine the foods ; to make them tenable and transport- 
able they have removed many integral parts of grains. 
To make them more profitable they have left them with- 
out sufficient roughage. 

While it is true that bran is more economical in the 
animal than it is in the human, owing to the fact that 
the animal digests cellulose, while the human does not, 
yet, the fact remains, that the human intestine will act 
vigorously only when supplied with that very roughage 
which it can not digest. It is therefore of the highest 
importance that the patron be supplied with foods which 
contain mineral salts, nutriments and roughage. 

The general public is beginning to understand this 
phase of the restaurant business. And the wise and 
progressive restaurant man is beginning to show an in- 
terest in this line of his work. 

To produce the best results he must supply him- 
self with recipes, which unite the elements of success. 
This means, he must acquire recipes, which provide well 
flavored food, as cheaply as they can be produced, yield- 
ing at the same time a maximum of health-giving prop- 
erties. 

This is a large program. But the owner who adopts 
it, is taking out a safety policy for the future. He is 
safe in every direction. 



62 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

He protects himself financially, commercially, com- 
petitively and altruistically. He becomes a benefactor of 
mankind. 

The trouble with restaurant-food just now is, that 
it is frequently unscientifically prepared. 

Much has been written about dietetic values. In 
New York, where scientists and cranks live side by side, 
much has been done for the restaurant man. One man 
has spent a large fortune working out recipes, which em- 
body all the principles of virtue for food. He has been 
much encouraged. The press has given him much free 
space. His eating places are the glory of New York. 
His collection of recipes are a wonder of dietetic achieve- 
ment. His name is well known. It would pay progres- 
sive restaurant men to get into communication with him. 

The restaurant of the future will undoubtedly be a 
place which people will go to repair bodily waste. It 
will be a preventative refectory. Prevention is better 
than cure; so the worth-while restaurants of the future 
will work hand in hand with medicine, to prevent dis- 
ease, rather than cure it. 

In the preventative refectory a man will eat to avoid 
disease; he will eat there, because his mind will be free 
to be devoted to other things. The restaurant owner 
being a scientist, the patron will leave it to him to do 
the worrying about his bodily ills. It is unwise for a 
man to keep his mind focused on possible bodily ills. In 
the future he will leave that to the caterer and will de- 
vote all of his time to the problems of his own patriotic 
line. 

Some people exaggerate their own importance in 
the scheme of nature. A pain in their little finger is not 



The True Goal of the Lunch Room 63 

a national calamity and will not wreck the universe, 
whoever they may happen to be. But every man owes 
it to his family, to the state and to the firm who em- 
ploys him, to remain in as good health as is rationally 
possible. 

Man is the sum of what he eats. He is also the 
sum of what he thinks, plus the way in which he lives. 
But there is no reason why one man should be vigorous 
at eighty, while another should be debilitated at fifty. 

The restaurant can do much to make people live to 
a healthy and vigorous uniform old age. The restaurant 
should be the educator of the home kitchen; and in all 
probability the time is not very far when it will be more 
economical for people to eat in restaurants, just as it is 
already more economical for many people to live 'in 
hotels, than it is for them to live in private homes. Cen- 
tralization is the sign of the future. 

Centralized effort represents efficiency; and effi- 
ciency is bound to rule the future. Get in the game now 
and be in at the ground floor. 

Of course, good food costs good money; and it is 
not always possible to teach the public this lesson. But 
good food finds friends among the many. We have 
seen reputations built up on this platform. They drew 
patrons from a distance of many miles. There are many 
people who will walk ten blocks if they know they can 
get scientifically correct food. 

Many people are saving for a rainy day. When one 
asks them what they mean "by a rainy day,'* they in- 
variably answer (according to the Life Extension Insti- 
tute) "Why, when my health breaks down and I get 
sick, then I will need that money to take care of me.*' 



64 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

The loss and suffering that comes from such rainy days 
is far-reaching, whatever a man's position in life, or his 
earning power. 

The Life Extension Institute was organized to put 
such rainy days out of business — to help you, as an in- 
dividual, keep such rainy days out of your life. 

I should like to say the same of the restaurant. The 
restaurant should be organized to keep the sick-day out 
of a patron's life. Then, and only then, will the restau- 
rant become a national institution. 

How would a chain of restaurants, featuring na- 
tional health service, benefit a city or a country? I leave 
it to your imagination. 

A restaurant man should take a personal interest 
in his patrons. He should appraise their individual re- 
quirements. If approached, he should be able to give an 
outline for improving bodily conditions. Such things 
are not dreams, they are in the future, and they are near 
at hand. 

With proper guidance the individual can go on his 
way without a burden of anxiety. By correcting physi- 
cal impairment, many conditions of irritability, grouchi- 
ness, suspicion, laziness, cynicism and general dissatis- 
faction may be wholly transformed. 

There is no more important factor, in the general 
health of a people than the amount of open-air exercise 
which its individuals are taking. The restaurant, too, is 
affected by this factor. With prohibition in force, the 
natural conditions for the development of a healthful, 
national life, in which the restaurant is bound to play 
an important role, are given. A nation which enjoys 
daily vigorous outdoor exercise, will be a nation that will 



The True Goal of the Lunch Room 65 

be able to appreciate wholesome and scientific cookery. 
I therefore prophesy for America a steady and uninter- 
rupted increase of scientific and curative restaurants. 



The Modern Lunch Room 

By A. E. MERRILL 
Director of the Engineering Department of Albert Pick & Co. 

Next to the cafeteria, the restaurant offering lunch 
counter service in whole or in part has had greater de- 
velopment in the past ten years than any other type of 
eating place. With this development the number has 
correspondingly increased until any business center in 
any city large or small has two or more to each block, 
which are doing a prosperous business. 

It is well to study both the change in equipment 
and method of operation which has caused the number 
to increase so rapidly and to consider the variation which 
exists today, together with a typical room arranged to 
the best advantage. 

The origin of the lunch counter apparently was the 
depot restaurant where patrons demanded a rapid but 
limited service and the equipment considered necessary 
was a horse-shoe counter with revolving stools set 
closely around the outside and a long center counter 
between the sides of the horse-shoe. On this center 
counter was a large battery of urns and the balance was 
left as a table where bread could be cut and baskets of 
rolls, doughnuts and fresh fruit displayed. During rush 
periods cuts of pies and cakes were set out both on the 
service counter and center counter, also bowls of hard- 
boiled eggs and ready prepared sandwiches. 

66 



The Modern Lunch Room 



67 




68 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

The customer was naturally induced to take from 
the assortment in sight no matter how unappetizing it 
might appear. The water was uniced and served with 
pitchers and no 'part of this limited menu was kept in 
either a sanitary manner or enclosed to keep it fresh. If 
the customer had time to wait he could secure an order 
prepared in the kitchen but generally the time element 
prevented this and he hastily grabbed the dried up mor- 
sels before him and ran for his train. 

It is needless to state that no such restaurant could 
stand competition and only because of their peculiar 
location could or did they profitably exist. To consider 
any construction except the cheapest wood never oc- 
curred and to add any unnecessary equipment to prop- 
erly chill drinks, salads and fruit and keep cups and 
plates hot was out of the question. It is sad to state that 
lunch counters of the above description still exist in some 
of the larger cities blind to the fact that this method of 
operation will never make for success. 

The change from the above described lunch room to 
the modern lunch counter has been by degrees. Compe- 
tition started this change, Boards of Health and State 
sanitary laws hastened it and today it is no uncommon 
occurrence to have $25,000.00 expended in a room 22 
by 1 00 feet seating at counter and tables all told not over 
ninety people. 

Our friends from Greece, Italy and China deserve 
their share of credit also in this development and today 
the depot restaurant because of competition across the 
street is equipped with all modern devices and is finding 
that a very thrifty business can be obtained thereby from 
other than the traveling public. Nearly every commer- 



The Modern Lunch Room 69 

cial hotel in the east has, since the bar ceased to exist, 
devoted space to a modern lunch counter and no matter 
how large the room or how many the stools they are al- 
ways crowded. The Commodore in New York, starting 
with about forty stools, soon doubled the capacity. The 
Pennsylvania started out with one hundred and twenty- 
five stools and could fill at noon and night twice that 
number. The Hotel Cleveland has four complete horse- 
shoe units, each seating about thirty people, and no 
architect today is preparing plans for hotels without de- 
voting space for the lunch room. 

The change from the cheap wooden counter with- 
out any equipment was manifested at first by adding a 
white glass top to the old lunch counter and putting in 
a combination cooler, consisting of an insulated galvani- 
zed tank with ice and water chamber in center and milk 
and cream chambers at the sides. There also were sup- 
plied elevated shelves over the center counters and on 
these were placed covered glass plates with cakes and 
pies protected from the air and flies. 

Later on it was discovered that a certain amount of 
hot dishes could be profitably and quickly prepared and 
facilities for making cakes, waffles and serving eggs and 
toast were added on the kitchen side of the partition with 
a slide opening between this and the counter. There 
also was included a steam table so that a certain number 
of entrees could be shown on the bill of fare. This grad- 
ually has developed piece by piece and item by item un- 
til the modern lunch room of today represents a complete 
equipment with every possible device for convenience in 
serving and preparation of good, wholesome food. It is 
unnecessary for the State Sanitary Examiner to look 



n 



Lunch Room as a Money Maker 



over the average lunch room for the reason that it is 
kept immaculate from the time it is put in, and the equip- 
ment is so chosen to make this easily possible. 

In the larger hotels and depots the shape of the 
room is generally such that it will permit of the horse- 
shoe counter in multiples with the center serving coun- 
ters between and each horse-shoe unit is a complete little 
restaurant in itself and is supplied with facilities for serv- 
ing ice water, ice cream, coffee, pastry, salads, etc., from 
its own station with only the entrees and short orders to 
be secured from the main kitchen. 

By far the most common type of lunch room is a 
long narrow room varying in width from some fifteen or 
sixteen feet to twenty-five feet and in length from sev- 
enty-five feet to one hundred and fifty feet. A good 
average size room which is well proportioned and most 
common would be twenty-two feet in width and one 
hundred feet in depth. This preferably should be a first 
floor location with a side entrance and twenty-five feet 
can be taken off for the kitchen, leaving approximately 
seventy-five feet for the dining room. It has been found 
far more profitable for an all-day business to combine 
table service with a lunch counter service as this insures 
a longer daily operation and requires but very little ad- 
ditional help. The idea of the lunch counter itself is to 
insure rapid service and to make this a possibility the 
equipment should include everything that would be re- 
quired to serve a complete meal, with the exception of 
the steam table and range. Even these are added in some 
lunch rooms but as a general thing the odors which arise 
and the heat which they cause render this an objectional 
feature. 



The Modern Lunch Room 7 1 

If we would start in with the bare walls of this room 
our first consideration would be to build a bulkhead at 
the front window covering at least sixteen or seventeen 
feet of space and the remaining corner should be a storm 
and screen entrance with a door opening from the side. 
This bulkhead should be preferably provided with a glass 
or tile top although a finished wood flooring is equally 
used. Back of this bulkhead should be a railing pro- 
vided with a neat curtain on rings and all that this bulk- 
head should be used for is one or two palms at the end 
and one item of food a day, such as a beautiful cake or 
a sample of roast or some particular feature of the day's 
menu. 

The walls of this room should be wainscotted to a 
height of 7 feet 6 inches with a marble baseboard all 
around the room. A great deal of tile and glass wain- 
scotting has been used but it is too common and too cold 
in its effect to be most pleasing and a good three or five- 
ply veneer of quarter-sawed oak, mahogany or gum- 
wood, makes a beautiful room and far more harmonious 
in effect than the glarey glass or tile. The counter would 
naturally be made to match the wainscotting both front 
and back and should be provided with glass top. 

A room of the length above described conveniently 
lays out the following fixtures as shown in the accom- 
panying diagram: Three 20 foot counters seating ten 
each; one 6 foot cigar case and cash register stand with 
a 6 foot wall case back of same ; two 20 foot back coun- 
ters supplied with sliding doors and drawers below with 
54 inch glass top, and above each of these back counters 
a series of three white glass shelves 5 feet long and 7 
inches wide, and two 1 foot plate glass pastry cases with 



72 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

frameless glass sliding doors. Between the two back 
counters are arranged the entire serving equipment of 
the front room, which consists of first a combination 
cooler which serves ice water, ice cream, milk, butter- 
milk and sweet cream. It also has a small refrigerator 
compartment below the draft arm where four trays of 
butter chips are kept and beneath this a small storage 
compartment for keeping uncut butter and a few other 
items that are desired to be kept free from contamination 
of other odors. This fixture should be built with a cop- 
per lining, having a 2 inch sheet cork insulated wall, 
fastened to a metal framework with the sides covered 
with white glass or porcelain. The trimmings are nickel 
silver and the entire top of the fixture is of nickel silver 
with the covers over the packing cans and ice cream 
cylinders of the same material. Such a fixture should 
have a series of glass tumbler shelves of white glass 
overhead and preferably be supported off the floor upon 
6 inch white porcelain shoes, the same as the back coun- 
ter and front counter to afford easy access to the drain 
and water pipes. 

The fixture next to this is an urn stand and cup 
warmer. This should be open and of the same appear- 
ance as the front of the cooler with nickel silver trim- 
mings and should be furnished with two heated shelves, 
open, without sliding doors and supported on the 6 inch 
white porcelain shoes. The top of this stand is of nickel 
silver stretched over steel with a perforated drainer 
across the front, and on top of this should be a massive 
battery of coffee urns, consisting of two eight or ten gal- 
lon coffee urns with one central twenty-five gallon hot 
water urn connected to both water jackets and coffee re- 



The Modern Lunch Room 73 

ceptacles of each coffee urn with suitable valve and 
nickel plated pipe. The water urn is protected against 
injury by a double acting safety valve, eliminating the 
danger of collapsing or explosion. 

Next to the coffee urns is a refrigerated pan with 
a storage compartment beneath same built entirely of 
metal, having an ice pan with double wall, cork in- 
sulated, between and like the remaining fixtures, all ex- 
posed front portions should be of white porcelain with 
nickel silver trimmings, and the working parts of salad 
pan including sides, base and removable false bottom of 
heavy nickel silver. Over th6 top of this fixture is an- 
other display shelf supported on the edges of the pan by 
nickel plated framework and it is the purpose of this pan 
to serve rapidly salads, melons, fruits and other things 
that it is essential to have properly chilled and close at 
hand. 

Adjacent to this fixture is a white porcelain covered 
ice box with white porcelain exterior and interior, with 
nickel silver trimmings. In this box are kept the remain- 
ing cold dishes, such as puddings, some sauces and fruit 
which when exposed deteriorate and are unfit to be 
served. 

The two back counters at either end of these fix- 
tures have storage space below, with sliding doors, for 
wrapped sandwiches, cereals and a vast other assortment 
of foods which constitute part of the lunch counter 
menu. The shelves above are principally for display 
purposes only but can be used for a certain amount of 
foods ready to serve providing the law permits, and the 
top of the back counter can be used for certain cuts of 
pies and cakes during the rush period only. Two 10 



74 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

foot pastry cases with sliding doors offer suitable facil- 
ities for keeping in a proper condition the necessary 
amount of French pastry, cakes, etc., which do not re- 
quire to be chilled but at the same time do require to be 
protected from the weather and insects. 

Back of the cigar case and cash register stand should 
be a 6 foot tobacco case for selling cigarettes, tobacco, 
etc., in which line a very profitable business at any lunch 
counter can be secured. On the other side of the room 
ten four-chair tables and eleven two-chair tables are pro- 
vided. The choice is about equally divided on these 
tables between an unfinished white top, using linen, and 
the white glass top to match counter top, with probably 
the preference being given to the white glass top tables. 
The location has a great deal to do with the decision on 
this particular point. The entire paneling of this side of 
the room should either be supplied with an abundant 
supply of coat hooks or a continuous coat and hat rack 
combined to provide suitable and ample place for coats, 
hats, furs, packages, etc. 

This practically completes the equipment of the 
front part of the room and as you may guess each piece 
of equipment has been created because of the customer's 
demand for immediate and correct service. He has no 
sooner seated himself at the stool than a glass of ice 
water is placed in front of him and he generally is fam- 
iliar enough with the menu that he does not have to con- 
sult this in order to have brought to him what he desires 
and what he sees displayed in the cases in front of him. 

The kitchen equipment is just as important as the 
dining room equipment. In order to make for success 
it should consist of at least an 8 foot steam table with a 



The Modern Lunch Room 75 

soup tureen, three meats, six vegetables and gravies, set 
back of a slide opening directly to the counter, and this 
steam table should rest upon a suitable dish heater be- 
neath to keep the dishes properly heated. Adjacent and 
at right angle to it is a 36 inch cake griddle and toaster 
with an egg boiler handy, two sections of range, a cook's 
table at least 8 feet long by 36 inches wide, with a sauce 
pan rack over, a butcher's block, a sink and a large serv- 
ice ice box at least 7 J/2 feet by 3 feet. These all should 
be arranged on one side of the room. 

On the opposite side is a dishwashing pantry 1 2 by 
8 feet, including a small dishwasher, silver and glass sink 
and spacious metal tables. As stated in the first part of 
this article, the choice of location should insure a first 
floor location with unoccupied basement beneath. Con- 
sequently, a stairway should be provided leading to this 
basement and a large storage refrigerator, store room, 
locker room, etc., should be located in this basement. 

The same side of the room as the dishwashing 
pantry should include a large vegetable peeler, cutting 
table and vegetable table with a central door leading to a 
supply platform leading into the alley where all mer- 
chandise can be received. 

This kitchen should be supplied in addition to this 
slide opening above the steam table with a double set of 
doors swinging from a central post at least 30 inches 
wide. The cook's table should be provided with an ele- 
vated serving shelf at least — if not an elevated dish 
heater, to give the waiters taking care of the tables a con- 
venient chance to come and go in taking care of their 
orders. 

There are, of course, large variations from the 



76 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

above described standard equipment which can be made 
and each operator who 'has been in business for any 
length of time has his own peculiar idea as to what con- 
stitutes necessity and success. 

The writer wishes to assure any prospective pro- 
prietor of a lunch room that such equipment as here de- 
scribed in any good location in any large city has never 
been known to fail when properly accompanied with 
good stewardship and good cooking. 



To Get the Business and Keep It 

All Restaurants Should Advertise 
By F. A. PARTENHEIMER 



There may have been a time when eating places 
were few and far between, that each one of them secured 
all the business they could either handle or desire. 



, r*ti W-JJT^ greet 
^ tor the****- 



THIS CAFET*BIA 
Is purely a "sfelf / ..ser<fc u :. _ 
tlon where the custonpffic'^aita 
■od himself ,or JlorB^S^Qir 
everything. The'iVta^a 



that to be n, 
convenience In so dolj 
nffoid to be omitted.'- Try 
it. Always Open. 



£&- 






* 



PlAZALMKeHloSt 



*,««« 



#•'**»••< 



'Hot Newt* 






cuv© iupter. of 

appetttei J»« x *«*» 
i get, -anti If ou» 



*j^pS^wS?^! 



'looks ^better Jh-A: ^^t?.^ 

._ neighbor jo* 4**. S-w^SiTp^, 

perfectly jweIco.1u0.Vl* «■« *o t* e . 

£wo it.. « tnto ft»*t sssjvssr 

your regular; luocfa»oa -^wa^eleTS* 

place, it ought to *•* ' '-- 



Irtw, 

Ity 




No. 1 
But in the present day of lively competition, when 
labor saving devices so largely solve the question of 

77 



78 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

help; to fill every chair and table, it is necessary to tell 
by the printed word why the food one serves is pref- 
erable. 

Whether you conduct an armchair-self-serve estab- 
lishment, a service a la carte, or a cafeteria, it is certain 
that a modest expenditure in frequent newspaper ad- 
vertising will pay anyone and pay you handsomely. 

In food advertising, the writer has had quite some 
experience — originally putting a now noted breakfast 
food on the National market and into millions of mouths 
eventually. This experience applied to the agency serv- 
ice field naturally drifted to successful restaurant adver- 
tising. So I believe a little history of restaurant advertis- 
ing experience along with actual example of the work 
which accomplished results will be of vital interest. 

The first example shows ads of the Plaza Lunch, 
which were run in 28 lines of space three times a week 
in four newspapers for a period of three months. While 
the space occupied by each was only two inches, you see 
by the means of strong illustrations they were made to 
stand out and attract reader attention. Since this res- 
taurant was built and fitted up by a wealthy clothing 
manufacturer for speculative purposes, the instance is 
cited because it so clearly proves what the power of ad- 
vertising is able to accomplish. He wished to sell, but 
must first get the people coming, for the establishment 
was located on a side street, away from frequent travel. 
But they came from these small appeals and would not 
have gone out of their way to eat by any other means. 
So it was only a small space of time before he was en- 
abled to sell out at a handsome profit — simply because 
he had made his place popular through advertising, and, 



To Get the Business and Keep It 



79 



aJKttK=dB«EBSaE 





The One Place where too can, dine .or lunch wisely 
and well — at ' 

tMbrau 



Turkey, Plate. $1.00 
Sea Food. Plate, f 1.00 



Chicken. Plate. St. 00 
Beefsteak. Plate, tijii 



Reletiardt's New York Society Orchestra renders 
delightful musical programme nJghUy 



i 



Sunday evening 

concert front 

• to 10.80 



m^^^^J^^a^^^W^^ 



of course, a satisfac- 
tory service to back it 
up. This, perhaps, is 
a rare cause for em- 
ploying newspaper 
publicity, but clearly 
shows only to what 
ends advertising may 
sometimes be em- 
ployed. 

The Odenbach 
Hofbrau, undoubted- 
No. 2 ly the most famous 
eating place in "The Quality City," who were first to 
introduce ice skating 
as a high grade din- 
ing attraction, have 
from time to time 
employed dignified 
copy to announce 
their regular menus 
and orchestral attrac- 
tions thus: No. 2. 

Therefore it was 
comparatively easy ^^ 
for them even before 
dry laws became pro- 
hibitory to convert 
their regular bar into 
a first-class delicates- 
sen, which they an- 
nounce frequently in 
their usual quaint tyle, as in No. 3. No - 3 



-■-- - 



Announcing Friday Specialties 
for Your Home Table 

Here you can obtain palate pleasing delicacies 
to arouse the family appetite on ' "Meatless Days"— 
both economically and welL 

FOR INSTANCE 
Gib Meat Salad Clam Chowder 
ColdStiV Lobster Salad 

Deviled Gabs Potato Salad 

Shrimp Salad Oyster Loaf 

Salmon Sakd 
Cold- Salmon with Mayonnaise 
Stuffed Tomatoes Srao}ed Sturgeon 
Creek Salad Sraoktd Salmon 

Crab Ravigote Fish Cakes 

Soft Shell Crabs Marinate Hemng 

Or this special offering for Friday 

WHOLE BOILED LOBSTER WITH 
MAYONNAISE, FIFTY CENTS 

Yon can see all the above dishes on display in our refrig- 
erator display case*— ready to take home. 

In short, any of the ready-to-serve 
dishes on the Hofbrau menu are 
on sale in this Delicatessen dt luxe 



80 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

In showing these examples, it is purposed to im- 
press upon any restaurant proprietor that he should 
evolve or have a good artist prepare individual designs 
for newspaper illustration that should be both original 
and distinct of his particular business. And in this way 
the cumulative effect of all his advertising will be two- 
fold. Have your name and address stand out in a dis- 
tinctive lettering which no type alone can lend; and you 
will get reader attention at a glance, for you cannot 
count on only a certain percentage of people who will de- 
sire to wade through all you have to offer, and even then 
they must be hungry or wish to cultivate an appetite. 

Just to show how your advertising may be kept 
seasonable, the advertising of the Four Rockaways is il- 
lustrated, and thereby hangs a tale. See copy No. 4. 

Mr. John T. Kenealy has built up this chain of res- 
taurants from one to six, in the space of only seven 
years; and undoubtedly his persistent publicity was so 
successful that it enabled him to eventually open up a 
new and higher class restaurant than his four self-serve 
places. He was advised, when he thought of calling this 
one "The Fifth Rockaway," that if his new venture was 
intended to cater to the better class of trade he intended 
it should, that to lend it that name would make any man 
feel like taking his wife into a "Five and ten cent store 
for a sealskin coat." So he gave the new place his own 
name and announced its opening thus: No. 5. 

But he was wise enough to follow it up with most 
attractive advertising in smaller space like this : As illus- 
tration No. 6. 



To Get the Business and Keep It 



81 




HEAR YE! 
HEAR YE! 
SANDWICHES 
FOR PICNICS 



__ Rock* way, 
.Ernst, atianyhonr. 4*7 •* 



4 Franklin St. we 

ipk*e refirtgenUion 

„ICE COM> WATER- 

»W Wl'««lfc 

THE ROOKAWAY SOBkA lOCW- 

TAFrf at W Mata «t. K. will eoel 
you off wttb.A BIO la o*. GLASS 
OP GINGER -AliE,' 6c 




parties ce» 
ad at the 




Salad Days Are Here 

A coed salad h always refresh- 
lug, but It Is especially enjoyed 




lESiAHD, ■■ 

PROFESSIONAL MEN 
Quickly leant tke advaste*e« of oat- 
tmm mtm ROCKAWAY. ■ ! 

" 7-wVe '"■« •' «oo* -eoffeo. a 
real Mmowtca. n « pie ■ u a«ode-_ 
741* V V? OB 5»» *■* *•»»• ROCK- 
AWAYS U wort* yoar vrWIe to try. 
-Make Yoar Way to a ROCKAWAY" 

COlfR ro OR 



I f* t «*te.- buT? ts h 2U»^Jt ««. 

S"~arSS5Sffs:- 

tyfclnic 0m<o i 
Jjlcsslii,- « wa | 
Tftnn 
Pie. 



#€3 / Mi****** 



■■* **■ wutfac ***** wai 2J 1 



Pure Food for Hot Weather 



Now, more than over, yoa should 
be particular about the quality of 
the food you cat. 

The KOCKAtt AYS realize the 
danger ol hot weather ami have re- 
doubled Ihdr efforts to utalte cer- 
tain that cverythlor Is «rl.-tly 
Cre>h: and anything you select at 
i« one ol onr tour rcsueranis 
yen cat. rot assured will be cm He- 
ly wholesome. 

You can't afford to be care- 
less, so 

"Make Your W»« lo 
A ROCKAWAY" 
and warm weather will bring yen 
no trouble. 




The Weather 5 Hero 

waen yen -lost fear notttne bea»ter 
tW an *m>etixlnc sanewtcfe vita lord 
tea or coffee win astisfy. Bo glance 



o»er onr ust of 




YOU'LL SAY SO 

Eren your order for "half and 
hair tastes good and "goes to the 
spot" at a KOCKAWAT. Or we 
wHl supply and ser»e yoo with 
everything that yon nay desire. 
Cakes that fairly melt in yoor 
month. Ice cream Mint is rich and 
TelTCty— or enticing salads and 
dainty sandwiches. Try is and see. 
TVe aim lo serre real appetlrers la 
tbc way of food. ,', 

fc •--^o^ A ur_HaxJo^ L BOCKAM^\Y• , 



if pressed m r^T 

W-TaSfiSKr*^ 




23 MAIM StCSSMAW ST.E 




^ S&^K&gfigggfe. 



No. 4 



82 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

However, the time came when his capacity was 
taxed to the very limit and he was compelled to sus- 
pend advertising until he could have the adjoining store 
fitted up to match the elegant appointments of the orig- 
inal. This done, he was quick to announce the enlarged 
quarters. See No. 7. 

And continuous advertising three times weekly has 
been appearing in the four daily newspapers (two morn- 
ing and two evening) daily at gratifying results ever 
since. As in No. 8. 

Right here is an advertising axiom that should be 
indelibly impressed on everyone who contemplates a 
paying publicity campaign. When you get them com- 
ing to tax your capacity, do not for one moment think 
that you can discontinue your ads and still retain all your 
trade that your advertising has brought you. The main 
purpose of advertising is the creation of good will, and 
it is as necessary to keep up the lively interest and faith 
of the trade you already possess through continuous ad- 
vertising as it is to throw open the doors of your eating 
place each day. In support of this statement, which has 
been proven again and again, witness all the big National 
advertisers who were not able to deliver a single order 
during the late World War. Did they quit? You know 
they did not — they kept up their advertising all the time 
in even larger space and told the consuming public 
frankly that they were engaged in supplying the needs of 
our expeditionary forces, and therefore could not begin 
to supply the civilian trade ; but went on and on to state 
and reiterate that their quality and service should be 
borne in mind and not forgotten until such time as they 






To Get the Business and Keep It 



83 




Q&It 2J9 MAIN St EAST i 
No. 5 and 7 at the top and No. 6 at the bottom 



84 



Lunch Room as a Money Maker 



could manufacture on a peace basis; and this was simply 
the retention of good will which had cost them millions 
to create and acquire — no one can possibly afford to lose 
that one single effect of advertising. 

To those of you who specialize in sea food during 
the fall and winter months, the announcements of The 
Oyster House, reproduced above, are alluminating and 
give you a line on the proper form of approach. Always 




No. 8 
remember there are many points about your service that 
the public are interested in; but you, yourself, might 
overlook as inconsequential. It is therefore advisable 
as well as profitable to hire an experienced advertising 
man to write and prepare your copy, because he looks at 
and through your business from an outside viewpoint, 
and can readily pick out all those features that are newsy 
and are bound to appeal. 

Note illustration No. 10. 

Consider the subtle warning at the head of the No. 
10 announcement: "Their advertisement is not ad- 



To Get the Business and Keep It 



85 



dressed to City Folks — so why waste your valuable time 
reading it?" And, of course, everyone of them waded 
clean through it to find out why they shouldn't. Like- 
wise the farmer reader for whom it was intended, was 
equally curious to know. 

And now for those who employ the famous Rotis- 
serie Process for the roasting of fowls and game, whose 





llany 



aHutae* 1 






*fr; 






. EAT YOUR SUNDAY DINNER 

AT THE SHELL OYSTER HOUSE 



SPECIAL SUNDAY SHORE DINNER 



Will Be Served To-cUy for $1.00 



Choice of Little Neck Clams or Blue Point Oysters 

One-hill of Chicken Lobster 

Broiled Lake Ontario Wrute Fish 

Creamed Potatoes Celery 

. Tlolls and CoHee ct L<rrj lot Cream 

•3* «wi 



T&i"*«ffJ 



WeNeckQams 






**>r*miu»sT%. 



IN ANDFPANKUN STS. 
No. 9 
business is not coming as good or as fast as it should, 
there is the germ of an idea in the way The Chicken 
Shop builds up the family trade in general. See No. 1 0. 
You will note that they say "100" or "1 12 Chick- 
ens," but, of course could supply any number; but they 
found from the publication of one announcement that 
many people bought four or five at a time ; so were com- 
pelled thereafter to limit the number to two to a cus- 
tomer. 



86 



Lunch Room as a Money Maker 



Is? i m m fi • 




To Get the Business and Keep It 87 

In conclusion, I have attempted to answer the ques- 
tion which is probably in the dark recesses of every res- 
taurant proprietor's mind: "Why should I advertise?" 
And if I haven't proved conclusively that you can ad- 
vertise your food services successfully, this chapter is 
certainly "love's labor lost." 

Certainly you'll take the actual reproductions of ad- 
vertisements others have done and are still doing today 
as ample and sufficient proof. The more unfavorable 
your location to the regular marts of trade, the more 
necessary it actually is to attempt to tell people why 
they should even go out of their way to profit by the 
regular service you render constantly. "Ain't it so?" 



Cost -Accounting in the Restaurant 

By KURT HEPPE 

Cost-figuring is a much neglected science — in the 
restaurant. Where in other lines paper and pencil are 
always on hand, in the restaurant guesswork takes the 
place of knowledge. 

The average per capita overhead is found by divid- 
ing the standing expense (exclusive of costs of mate- 
rials), by the average number of patrons. 

When dividing the average daily receipts by the aver- 
age number of patrons one obtains the average check. 
Subtracting from the average check the average over- 
head one obtains the average food-cost, plus profits. 

Inasmuch as patrons come into a restaurant for cof- 
fee and crullers, as well as for dinners, one must differ- 
entiate one's overhead. 

Patronage may be roughly divided into three 
classes: dinner, light lunch and coffee trade. 

Supposing the average overhead to be twenty-five 
cents, and the three trades to be about equally divided, 
then one could figure 1 2c for light lunch, and three cents 
for coffee trade. 

That would bring the overhead of the dinner to 25 
plus 1 3 plus 22, or to 60c per dinner. 

This is an immense cost! 

But such figures show conclusively that the over- 
head is a malicious factor. 

How then can it be reduced? 

88 



Cost-Accounting in the Restaurant 



89 



DATE. 



Per 

Portion 


Re- 1 Stock 1 Stock 1 n . 1 t, KnFf I ~„ IHelp&l Table 1 Whole, 
ceivedl Opening! Closing | Uaed | Short | 0ver | Kitch. | d'hote | sale 


COFFEE— CUPS |50 cup»-l lb. 












—CANS | 3 " — 1 can 












TEA-CUPS 1 100 cups-1 lb. 












" -CANS | " —lean 












BUTTER | 












EGGS | 












POUNDCAKE \2y 2 oz. 




1 1 1 1 * 








BEER | 












GINGERALE 












SARSAPARILLA | 












PHEZ | 












HOME MADE PIE | 












STORE PIE 












CANTALOUPE | 












HAM, BOILED | V/ 2 o*. per sandw'h 












" SMOKED | 












" RAW f 












VEAL | Hlb. 












BACON | ■ 












BEEF | ^lb. 












CORNED BEEF | H lb. 












PORK | ^lb. 












HENS, COOKED | H lb. 












M RAW |60% all. to cooked 












FISH | % lb. per portion 












LAMB | Hlb. 












CHOPPED MEAT | H lb. 












LIVERWURST < ■ 1 2 oz. per sandwich 












1 












1 












1 












1 












1 












1 












RING CAKES * | t 












DOUGHNUTS 












WINE CAKE | 












CHEESE CAKE 












COFFEE CAKE 




» • 1 1 II 








1 












1 ' ' . 












ICE CREAM . 1 1-7 qt. per portion 












1. 












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90 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

It can be reduced by eliminating all avoidable ex- 
pense; by increasing the trade, and by efficient working 
plans. 

As in all undertakings the restaurant-man should 
have a very clear picture of his per capita overhead. 

If he sells his dinner for a dollar, and the overhead, 
expense is sixty cents, then he can only give thirty cents 
worth of food in order to make a ten cent profit. 

To increase the trade, window displays are of the 
greatest importance. Narrow glass shelves, pyramiding 
backward, give the best chance to take full advantage of 
the show-window. 

Six shelves, one above the other, can easily be 
placed, and an attractive display arranged; there is no 
apparent reason why restaurants should not derive fully 
as much benefit from their show-windows as do depart- 
ment stores. 

It is true, the restaurant window dresser has not yet 
been developed, but his advent is merely a question of 
time. 

Increased trade, automatically decreases the per 
capita overhead. That is why some restaurants are rest- 
lessly striving for more business. 

What he does know is quantity, and price. So 
these two factors the restaurant must not lose sight of. 

Buying in quantity does not make for economy. 
But buying small and buying bargains, is the essence 
of economy. The restaurant owner must always have 
an eye for bargains. There are bargains in everything, 
all the time. 



Cost- Accounting in the Restaurant 91 

Newspaper ads often lead to savings, as do also 
sales, auctions, overstocked warehouses, new firms seek- 
ing new business, old firms selling out, etc. 

A close buyer always gets the first crack at bar- 
gains. Salesmen know they can only sell to the close 
buyer if they have a special inducement to offer. So 
they reserve their bargains for the close buyers. 

Under efficient working plans we understand reci- 
pes, which give the greatest amount of delectable food, 
at the smallest expense; 

Iron-clad rules for portioning by weight; 

Exploitation of the plant; 

Full use of the crew. 

A profit sharing plan often does wonders! 

But carefully tested recipes are the real source of 
wealth. 

Strange that no caterer has yet published a book of 
really scientific and at the same time economical recipes ! 

A friend of mine, the other day, told the chef to 
make brown-rice-pudding. The chef used milk and van- 
illa flavor, and produced a mediocre product. My friend 
corrected him by steaming the rice, with water only, mix- 
ing it with raisins, which had been soaked in water over 
night, and, with a little salt and sugar produced a rice 
pudding that contained wonderful nutriment and com- 
bined with it the most delectable flavor; all at half the 
expense of the other. 



A Money -Saving Restaurant Plan 

How and Why the Rockaway Lunch Co., of Rochester, N. Y. 
Know Just Where They're at Day by Day of Each Week 

There may have been a time when conditions 
were more normal that to strike a balance monthly 
would have proved sufficient to determine whether a 
gain or loss had accrued in the conduct of the Rockaway 
Lunches. In fact, it is doubtful if any other restaurant 
people today even know to the last penny the exact con- 
dition of their individual businesses even monthly. 

In former times you figured on from 14 to 20 per 
cent profit, but today, you are wise indeed if you net 1 
per cent at most. Prices on commodities and wages of 
help have soared to unheard of heights — so Mr. John 
T. Kenealy, president of the Rockaway Lunch Co., em- 
ployed the firm of McNulty & Sophie, Public Account- 
ants and Auditors, 406 Arlington Building, Rochester, 
who specialize in restaurant accounting systems, to sum- 
marize his receipts and expenditures each day. 

Outside of Childs' or Thompson's, it is doubtful if 
any other restaurant concern in the United States em- 
ploys such a "comprehensive at a glance" schedule of 
daily assets and liabilities as the Rockaways', and we 
are pleased to be able to reproduce an exact fac-similie 
of the complete form used by each of these six Rochester 
restaurants. 

The practical application of this plan continually 
suggests systems whereby cheaper costs can be attained 
— one already adopted being the manufacture of its own 
ice and installation of individual cooling systems in each 

92 



A Money-Saving Restaurant Plan 



93 



Rockaway. In face of present day laundry costs, the 
next step will undoubtedly be the establishment of a co- 



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operative laundry for the benefit of all of the "Quality 
City's" eating places. 

It seems to us that such a record certainly cuts out 
all the theory and would place every restaurant that 



94 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

adopted it simply on a "brass tack" basis, for there's 
no possible chance for "bunk" to slip in. As Mr. 
Kenealy recently said: "I constantly find — either by 
hard work or stumbling onto them in the other man's 
experience — little short cuts which reduce expenses 
enough so that they are worth while. As soon as I find 
one of these plans, I put it into active service. And the 
sum of the little economies, trifling as they may be in- 
dividually, is large." 

Incidentally, this company figures on spending but 
2 per cent of receipts on advertising for more. So it 
seems to us that this is a splendid idea for you, too, to 
keep after both the little and large operating economies 
and find your savings as great, not at the end of the 
year, but at the end of each week or day, as those of the 
manager who is interested only in major profit. 



How About Your Costs? 

Many restaurant men vaguely figure that they 
should charge double the cost for food served. In other 
words, every dollar spent for food supplies, should bring 
two dollars when the food is served. This sounds very 
simple and profitable, but that dollar's worth of food has 
usually a long journey before reaching the customer's 
plate. We wonder how many restaurant men realize 
that out of the dollar charged for converting the raw 
foodstuffs into a palatable meal, that probably twenty- 
five cents goes to the help for labor, that perhaps ten 
cents for linen service, to say nothing for general over- 
head expense, such as rent, light, etc., not to mention in- 
terest on the investment, and depreciation. What is left 
is profit if you do not figure your own salary. Believe 
me, when I say your half of the two dollars has shrunk 
some when you get what is left. It behooves the res- 
taurant men to study management efficiency. Find out 
where you are and if you are not making a reasonable 
profit, raise your prices, where that is not possible other 
adjustments may be necessary. 

It's only a few years ago that printers had no more 
idea of their costs than children. They know about how 
long it took a type setter to handle a job, figured the 
two, labor and material, and gave the customer a price. 
After a while the printers got together and secured a 
crew of experts on costs. These men overlooked noth- 
ing in plant operation. Every item was considered, aver- 

95 



96 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

aged, and schedules were prepared. The most surprised 
individuals were the printers themselves, for most of 
them never before realized that they had been under- 
charging while sincerely believing they were making 
money. The customer was unintentionally getting the 
benefit. Today printing in many localities is more than 
double that of five years ago. While, of course, some 
of these increases are due to higher labor and material 
cost, yet the average printer today knows when he 
makes a price that he must consider besides actual cost 
of work, also interest on his investment, his general over- 
head and his depreciation. 

The restaurant owner having, as he does, a high de- 
preciation, should make a liberal allowance for this. His 
depreciation does not always mean his furniture, fixtures 
and equipment wearing out, but the replacements con- 
stantly necessary to keep a place down to date. 



How My Commissary is Operated 

By E. W. EDDY 
The One Minute Restaurants, Madison, Wis. 

Some twelve years ago while the ambition to run 
more than one place was paramount, plans were formu- 
lated to build a central plant, from which a number of 
restaurants could be furnished with hot cooked food, also 
a line of cold victuals, all to be delivered at stated and 
regular times, by wagon or auto. For this purpose, 
transfer food trucks to be heated by gas were ordered 
made, like large roll warmers on wheels. Also specially 
constructed commissary auto trucks, with drop axels, 
into which these food trucks could readily be loaded 
from the sidewalk. The auto truck or commissary wagon 
to have a separate compartment for bakery goods, which 
it was thought necessary and convenient to carry at the 
same time. The Codington Circuit Restaurant system 
of New York City was a working model after which we 
patterned. 

So a three story building, with an ample basement 
extending into vaults under the sidewalks, at both front 
and rear, was built on a site which has two street ends, 
affording a good home for all departments essential to a 
well balanced restaurant circuit culinary and commis- 
sary. Here then, on the entire third floor is discovered 
the kitchen with its adjoining subsidiary storeroom and 
vegetable room, a private room for the chef, and clothes 
closets for his assistants. The equipment conveniences 

97 



98 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

are many; labor saving machinery is installed wherever 
practicable. An electric elevator puts the kitchen next 
room to all the floors, and in many instances much bet- 
ter than to be actually in close proximity to another de- 
partment. 

The second floor contains a bake shop, equipped 
with a two decked portable oven, a dough mixer, cake 
mixer, a bread crumber, steam custard cooker, and gas 
hot plates for cooking various fillings, and making fried 
cakes, together with the usual line of furnishings, which 
a regular baker needs. On the same floor is the laundry, 
with a washing machine, an extractor, and a mangle. 
The balance of this second floor is occupied by a cozy 
office, and a store room with a supply of kitchen uten- 
sils and a stock of linen and silverware for immediate 
issue. The bake shop especially is of easy access to 
the electric elevator, besides which a dumb waiter con- 
nects the bake shop with the kitchen proper and the first 
floor below. 

The ground floor facing the main street has a self - 
served restaurant as one of the units, occupying a little 
over a half of the area. The balance of the floor space 
facing the street at the rear is used as a meat cutting 
shop, with its refrigerator and fish boxes, and a general 
transfer room for all the places. Here all telephone or- 
ders are received, where such become necessary, for the 
house adheres to the written order closely, furnishing 
printed forms for that purpose. An ,iron canopy ex- 
tends to the outer line of the sidewalk, protecting incom- 
ing provisions from rain and shielding the work of trans- 
fer in the loading and unloading of the food truck. Noises 
foreign to the work of other departments are confined 



How My Commissary Is Operated 99 

to this department alone, and are largely outside the 
doors of the transfer room proper. 

The basement has many uses, a milk room where 
is also a large storage refrigerator. The grocery store, 
with a considerable stock necessary for constant issue 
to all departments, and a line to the unit places. A 
potato and vegetable room, with its power peeler, a 
boiler room and coal vaults. Connected with the boiler 
room is a built-in paper burner, which reduces a wagon- 
load of soiled paper, wooden barrel hoops and much lit- 
ter to a few shovelsful of ashes. From the basement up, 
two chimneys and a large ventilating flue in the center, 
serves the three floors and basement with a quick ven- 
tilation and a strong draft. 

A feature noticeable in connection with the furnace 
room, is the iron lined ash truck, with its side boards 
and break endgate, which will hold one and one-half 
cubic yards of ashes, this is rolled on to the elevator 
when filled, and transported in the commissary auto to 
the dump, where it is half dumped, half shoveled. As a 
labor saving and convenient mode of disposing of ashes, 
we have other Yankees to hear from. 

Issues are made from written orders, by written re- 
quisitions, made more official by the time of day being 
noted on same. All department heads, keep carbon cop- 
ies of orders and requisitions for their own reference, 
while the pencil copy follows the requisition or goods to 
its destination, and thence to the office. Occasionally a 
daily invoice and balance is made of the milk and cream, 
fruits and perishable vegetables ; and a weekly one of the 
meat; and at all times a monthly invoice, and balance of 
the groceries, at which time an invoice is made of the 



100 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

stock in each of the places, whence the regular monthly 
report is compiled. In this connection it may be of some 
moment to many to know that the entire culinary out- 
put has for months together, largely as an experimental 
matter, been computed at so much per pound, for all 
victuals, hot or cold, sent to the places; charging them 
up with the same and crediting them with the check- 
back. The success of this depends upon the standardi- 
zation of the recipes and the exact manner of handling 
provision in the kitchen. 

Turning to the kitchen and its manner of turning 
out dinner and supper specials, there is of general inter- 
est — otherwise it, is like all other circuit restaurants — 
and that is this — the holding of food in the asbestos lined 
food trucks, which stand near the ranges and steam 
cookers. These trucks, which have large stationary 
wheels at one end, and smaller swivel wheels at the 
other, are attached to gas and remain heated until time 
for transfer. Disappearing doors on two decks and 
sliding doors on the lowest and most spacious compart- 
ment, receive the cooked food as it comes from range 
or cooker, or bain marie. There is no more approved 
way of holding victuals hot than in a large roll warmer 
built for this purpose. Such a food truck, asbestos 
packed, and lined with an aluminum composition sheet 
metal, can be loaded into a closed auto car and trans- 
ported on a cold day without lessening the palatability of 
the food. 

In this connection you may naturally ask to 
what extent short order work is done at the central plant. 
There is nothing handled at the culinary, which can read- 
ily be left to the individual places of those items which 



How My Commissary Is Operated 1 1 

should come "right off the fire." True, many supper 
specials heretofore thought necessary to be cooked to or- 
der, may be subject to a manner of handling. A Swiss 
steak will supplant a beefsteak for quick work, as will 
liver saute for the more customary fried liver, which a 
short order bill supports. The line of short orders is al- 
ways sufficient and rather to be discouraged in favor of 
the ready-to-serve dishes. 

When a food truck arrives as per schedule, at the 
rear door of a unit place, it is rolled down a skid to a 
transfer room and immediately unloaded, with its varied 
contents placed in steam tables, bain marie, pie run and 
bean warmers. The written requisition which follows a 
truck, serves as a bill of fare for the manager to use as 
copy for immediate use. The special items are written 
on large blackboards facing the trade, and when a special 
is gone it is erased from the board, which saves any cus- 
tomer the agony of always wanting that very thing. 

Much as the culinary prepares its output, so are the 
bakery goods scaled and baked to suit the trade. The 
cut meats made ready on trays for immediate use 
weigh to one quarter of an ounce, if necessary, placed 
in orders, covered closely with parafine paper. The 
grocery department, too, in many ways making its line 
ready to serve, and issuing only for a few days use, or 
often for only a day, thus keeping the control at home. 
The laundry with its fabric napkins — a feature, coats 
and aprons, kitchen aprons, dish wiping towels, counter 
towels, and grease cloths — to handle quickly and to 
count back is a great gain over the long wait for the 
legular city laundry wagon to come. 



1 02 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Many of the advantages of the circuit restaurants 
of a large city are enjoyed consequently in a town of 
fifty thousand people. There is a division of labor and a 
specialization on the whole, which brings good results 
and a pecuniary advantage to an extent over an isolated 
place. On the whole, there is a saving of foodstuff at 
the storeroom and another saving effected by the check 
back from two places, often being enough for a third, if 
used the next meal. To have one judgment exercised 
in the disposition of the check back, by a chef, the life 
of which could not be supported in each of the places, is 
of as great advantage as the uniformity of cooking, that 
is secured out of the factory kitchen — the culinary. 

As for equipment the unit places do not negotiate 
the line of the central plan, where volume of business 
permits machinery and a manner of handling, due to the 
feeders depending on its regular issue. 

Just what are the many side lines furnished by the 
culinary, is not to be mentioned here, so much by us, as 
the general fact established by our experiment, that it has 
promoted a simplification of the work in the individual 
places so that a girl working forty-eight or fifty-five 
hours a week can cover integral parts of the days work, 
and so maintain a system of watches that are similar in 
all the places. Much of this is effected by the arrange- 
ment and construction in the unit places some of which 
may be peculiar to us, but on the whole, the coming 
and going of the food truck brings in and clears away 
so unceremoniously what takes so much time and adds 
confusion to the ordinary restaurant — the preparing of 
the dinner and supper. 



How My Commissary Is Operated 1 03 

Perhaps nothing is more a calamity than to have 
the power elevator at the central plant stop between the 
floors when a food truck is on its way, with but fifteen 
minutes to reach its destination. It certainly is no time 
to go to sleep. But like many other tight places — 
tighter because no provision has been made for the emer- 
gency. Time has demonstrated that the plan is practi- 
cable, and the advantage much greater than the risk. 

We have three establishments with ) another con- 
templated. During one month we served 38,1 77 meals in 
all three places. To do this required $2,000 worth of 
meat, 900 dozen eggs and 25 barrels of flour. We em- 
ploy 30 people with wages ranging from $1 to $30 per 
week. 

Those more practical minded of restaurant men 
may be curious to know if we ever have accidents. Those 
we have had and certain accidents are a calamity, but 
the whole system of transfer is a matter of determina- 
tion, as to method; and what is mechanical can be made 
mechanically correct. Local conditions can be met and 
have been, over a term of years. 



"Ham and—" 

By GLADYS E. STEVENS 
Advertising Manager, The Clark Restarant Co., Cleveland 

The modern lunch room has traveled a long, long 
way from its predecessors, but, to a large portion of the 
public, it still suggests a picture of mad haste and con- 
fusion, and a tough waitress calling in stentorian tones, 
"Adam an* Eve on a raft — wreck 'em!" to a cook in the 
kitchen who, if you get a glimpse of him, is a cross be- 
tween a pirate and a stevedore. Gradually we are living 
down the reputation given us in vaudeville skits and the 
newspaper funny page so that, after a while, everybody 
will recognize the fact that a really modern lunch room 
is so remote from the old time "hash house" that it is 
hard to credit its ancestry. 

It is not so easy as it used to be to fill in the word 
after the "and" in our title. There are a lot of things 
that the patrons of modern lunch rooms want, and the 
up-to-date lunch counter management is, of course, on 
the alert to provide them. 

Perhaps the history of the growth of The Clark Res- 
taurant Company is somewhat typical of the growth of 
lunch rooms everywhere, but it may be interesting, as 
presenting one company's approach to modern lunch 
room problems — an approach which has proved success- 
ful beyond all expectations. 

Our company owns and operates seven stores, six 
of them the counter type of lunch, and the seventh a 

104 



"Ham and 



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1 06 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

dairy lunch. All of the stores are open twenty-four 
hours every day (including Sundays). The six counter 
lunches average thirty- two stools each, and each stool 
averages fifty-five different occupants during every 
twenty-four hours. For the total number of stools, we 
think we are probably feeding as many people daily as 
any other restaurant in the United States. 

The present company is an outgrowth of one small 
lunch room, which was the only one owned by the com- 
pany eight years ago. The company has been reorgani- 
zed recently with plans which provide for whatever ex- 
pansion is necessary to meet the demands of a steadily 
increasing patronage. The stores have become so well 
known in Cleveland that the last three stores were vis- 
ited by one thousand people the first day, with no adver- 
tising beyond a sign a day or two before the doors were 
opened. 

R. D. Clark, president and general manager of 
the company, says he used to think himself 1 00 per cent 
efficient when, back of the counter in his first restaurant, 
he served his customers while his mind was busy on in- 
surance, the price of beef, and numerous other details of 
restaurant management. Now he claims that his time 
is much better spent at Rotary Club or City Club or 
Chamber of Commerce meetings, where discussions far 
afield from the restaurant business suggest possibilities 
of organization and development which, at his office 
desk, would never occur to him. 

The present development of the company owes its 
being to this definite decision that the lunch counter 
business — even though it was being handled on a small 
scale — had much to learn from big business, and that the 



"Ham and — " 107 

broad policies which large companies in other industries 
had adopted would pay if applied to a restaurant organi- 
zation. 

Giving the patrons he is seeking to serve what he 
believes they really want forms the basis of all Mr. 
Clark's plans. To the various problems involved he 
brings and adopts ideas suggested by the experiences of 
other business. In the last analysis it is believed that 
quality foods carefully prepared, courteously served 
from clean kitchens, and in inviting lunch rooms — at a 
fair price — sum up everything best calculated to gain 
and retain the good will of desirable customers. The 
chart we are showing which indicates how our lunch 
rooms and other departments function as related to the 
public may not tell much that is new. It is the literal 
living up to these clearly defined policies that is earning 
an enviable reputation for our company. 

First of all, the public wants quality foods. 

Quality foods can only be had by paying the price, 
and they must be bought under proper supervision, 
hence the important post of Commissary Chief. This 
position is held by A. Y. Clark, whose job it is to see that 
the buyers for the several departments shall not/ deviate 
from the company policy of purchasing only the best 
grade food products. Details of purchase are intrusted 
to the various heads of the commissary, which includes 
a bakery, a meat market, a grocery store, and a cigar de- 
partment. Fruits and vegetables are all bought from one 
dealer, with whom arrangement has been made to sup- 
ply articles that conform to the high standards Clark's 
has set. These department heads, who are experts in 
their particular line, are given instructions, frequently 



108 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

reiterated, that quality must be maintained, that price 
is only incidental to it. Each department head is on the 
alert for improvements. Recently Mr. Morris Pfeifer, 
who heads our bakery, was gladly granted a three 
months' leave to attend the bakers' institute in Chicago. 

Our meat department, which aims to be "the clean- 
est meat market in Cleveland," reduces the work in our 
kitchens considerably by dressing our chickens, slicing 
cold meats, and preparing roasts before delivery. Buy- 
ing our food in this way not only insures quality, but the 
interests of the public are still furthered, not only from 
the advantage gained in price through quantity handling, 
but from the fact that quick turnover insures a healthful, 
wholesome food. 

Modern methods of accounting and cost analysis, 
while initially, they add slightly to overhead costs, are, 
of course, an investment, and are another protection to 
the public, who, if they are charged on a fair percentage, 
are willing to pay for first class food. For the last six 
months the cost of food has ranged a little higher than 
is considered good business for the ordinary restaurant, 
but which, in the case of our company, is cheerfully paid 
in the interests of quality foods. This high food percent- 
age has not meant an undue charge to the customer, for, 
through our method of organization, and our large turn- 
over, our overhead cost is slightly lower than that of the 
average restaurant. In addition to a continuous audit 
inside our company, an outside audit is made every three 
months. Mr. S. A. Clark has charge of this department. 

The public wants food that is carefully prepared 
and courteously served. 



"Ham and — " 109 

In the preparation and serving of food, supervision 
by the store manager is essential, and the managers of 
the Clark stores, relieved as they are of the necessity of 
searching the market for the food they serve and of in- 
terviewing sundry salesmen — this work being in the 
hands of the Commissary Department — can devote their 
energies to seeing that food is prepared and served ac- 
cording to Clark standards. 

The managers are further assisted by an Employ- 
ment Department which in a short time will hire all em- 
ployees. Miss Caroline Hendershott, who is in charge, 
has come to the company after several years of 
experience in hotel and restaurant employment in the 
U. S. Employment Bureau, is now working in the kitch- 
ens of the company so that when her department is com- 
pletely established she will be in a position to know what 
is required of each job and with a knowledge of the per- 
sonality of the managers of the different stores can in- 
telligently place applicants where they are likely to fit in 
permanently. A literal living up to the eight hour day 
for women workers, sanitary dressing rooms, individual 
lockers and other advantages mentioned later should still 
further attract the kind of employees which the public 
want to have serve them. 

In recent years the matter of help has been the con- 
cern of many employers who have discovered that prof- 
its go hand in hand with wholesome employees. On the 
whole, it would seem that restaurants had failed to grasp 
the importance of this idea as directly contributing to 
their success. And from another side of the question it 
is only a matter of time before the public is going to 
completely awaken to the need of being safeguarded 



1 1 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

from the dangers of eating foods served by employees 
who may be subject to any kind of communicable dis- 
ease. 

The introduction of a company doctor whose serv- 
ices are free to our two hundred and fifty employees was 
received with apparent indifference but since his services 
were offered in eight months he attended over 1 50 
calls and office consultations. In the near future every- 
one will be subject to compulsory medical examination. 
This means that we are not only protecting the public, 
but as our doctor, who was a captain in the army, sug- 
gests we will find that this examination will be the best 
thing that ever happened to us. This examination will 
come automatically at least once or twice a year. We 
know this is a forerunner of what will be compulsory in 
the restaurant business before very long. We also think 
that the public upon realizing that they are having clean 
wholesome people serving them will gladly spend the 
few extra cents that it may cost. 

Freedom from worry makes for health and it is 
with this in mind that every employee in our company 
after three months service becomes insured for $500.00 
which is increased $100.00 every year he is with the 
company until a maximum of $1 500.00 is reached. This 
insurance also has an effect on our labor turnover. Our 
records show a gratifying increase in six hundred dollar 
and over policies. We were the second company in the 
United States to take group insurance with one of the 
big insurance companies. While we do not carry health 
and accident insurance for our employees, a liberal policy 
is maintained so that wages are paid in full to regular 
employees for a period of from one to twenty-six weeks. 



"Ham and — " 1 1 1 

The company is always ready to guarantee hospital bills 
and help in any emergency. One of the plans of our 
new Employment Department is to systematically call 
on all people under doctor's care. 

The Clark Restaurant Company is the first restaurant 
in the United States to join the National Safety Council. 
The big idea of the council is of course "Safety First/' 
They issue bulletins weekly which are put into our vari- 
ous departments and stores urging employees to be care- 
ful. Our State Compensation Insurance premium rate is 
exceedingly high. This is due to the fact that the res- 
taurants of the State are classed as a whole and the rate 
of accidents in restaurants is growing larger every year. 
If the Clark Restaurant Company paid the State accord- 
ing to the number of accidents in its own stores yearly 
its compensation insurance bill would be cut 80%. 

Mr. F. W. Brunner, Secretary of the company, 
in addition to numerous other duties relating to insur- 
ance, taxes, etc., is at the call of employees for advice 
on legal matters, saving thereby the danger of the possi- 
bility of unscrupulous lawyers who are ready to take ad- 
vantage of ignorance in affairs of this sort. His services 
are frequently required. 

Courtesy in an eating place is closely allied to the 
idea of hospitality and real hospitality can only grow 
out of a feeling of responsibility related, however re- 
motely, with the feeling that a man has for his own 
home. This feeling of real interest and responsibility 
is promoted in the weekly meetings of department heads 
and store managers. At these meetings new plans are 
discussed, reports made showing progress in the different 
departments. General policies are explained. Once a 



1 1 2 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

month meetings are held of employees holding key posi- 
tions in the stores which include, beside the store mana- 
gers, the bookkeepers, cashiers, head chefs, head wait- 
resses and others. These meetings are of value not only 
because they promote a friendly feeling down through 
the rank and file of employees but because of the inspira- 
tion they give to those most closely connected with the 
policies of management who realize that the success of 
the business depends on the good will of all the em- 
ployees who are working with the same motives and 
aspirations that impel their own actions. At these meet- 
ings refreshments are served and it is probably around 
the social cup of "Clark's coffee served with pure cream*' 
that greatest gain is made. The policy of the company 
to urge workers to go after the job ahead is emphasized 
over and over again and speakers from outside whose 
interests touch of the restaurant field, are asked to talk. 

The company is also practicing something not gen- 
eral in the restaurant business and by bettering the cause 
of the employee is benefitting the public. Anyone in 
our employ over six months gets one week's vacation 
with pay in advance ; over one year two weeks with pay 
in advance. Dishwashers fare the same as the manager 
of the company. 

As the business has grown in leaps and bounds, R. 
D. Clark has felt the loss of personal contact with em- 
ployees. When he managed his first restaurant he en- 
joyed the personal contact he had with his help and knew 
the value of it to his business. Now he tries to make it 
known to all employees that an appointment can always 
be made to see him and his honest advice received 



"Ham and — " 1 1 3 

whether it is a question of treatment by an immediate 
superior or a personal matter. 

In order to continue the feeling of unity that the 
smaller organization permitted, we hung a bulletin board 
in every department and store, in a location where it 
may be readily seen by all employees. Headed "Clark 
Chatter," this bulletin gives weekly gossip and personal 
items about our employees and happenings in the differ- 
ent stores and departments. It is our plan never to al- 
low what might be termed propaganda to monopolize 
the space, but, in the manner of the newspaper, to pub- 
lish what our readers want to read. Incidentally, the 
announcement that John Smith at No. Blank Store has 
been complimented on the arrangement of the salads not 
only gives John the sense that his efforts are noticed and 
appreciated but, at the same time, Mary Jones, who has 
this work in another store, is spurred on to excel in her 
salad arrangement. It is sometimes pathetic to see how 
much pleasure a personal item will give. One of our 
pantry girls was mentioned as having traveled exten- 
sively (she had been with the Pullman Company) , and, 
when that week's posting was taken down, she asked if 
she might have a copy to "put away," as she said, "with 
her certificate.' * 

This bulletin board may, in time, grow into a house 
organ, which will carry the same kind of weekly items 
and pictures . But, even if a house organ is adopted, our 
bulletin board will probably be continued, as, somehow, 
kodak pictures and typewritten announcements retain a 
personal touch which the printed sheet loses. Under 
each bulletin board an "idea box" invites suggestions. 
If they are adopted, a cash prize is awarded. 



1 1 4 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

With the opening of every new lunch room, Mr. 
G. S. Burrows, the head of our Construction Depart- 
ment, has discovered an improvement or two over the 
previous one, and, when it comes to perfection of detail, 
Mr. Burrows is a master. It is interesting to note that, 
under his plan, the last turn of the screw in the Clark 
Restaurant building leaves the line in the screw head at 
right angles to the floor, and the work of the man or 
woman whose job it is to keep things polished is les- 
sened by this forethought in what is, of course, an ex- 
tremely small detail. His department, which is thor- 
oughly acquainted with every bit of equipment used, is 
ready at almost a moment's call — day or night — to be 
on the job for repairs, and weekly inspections are made 
in every store, so that upkeep of all equipment is main- 
tained. 

Daily sanitary inspection of all our eating places is 
made by Mr. A. H. Thornby, who, in addition to super- 
vising the store managers, has an eye out for any failure 
to carry out orders relating to arrangements that have to 
do with clean handling of food. Each kitchen and store- 
room is sprayed daily — a precaution against vermin of 
any sort. Mr. Thornby makes special monthly inspec- 
tions and rates the stores, after carefully examining 
every bit of physical equipment and observing the gen- 
eral appearance of all employees. The inspectors for 
the city of Cleveland have given our seven stores an 
average of 99 per cent, with four of the six places a 
rating of 1 00 per cent. 

Our advertising department is in its infancy. Our 
stores are always crowded, so that our advertising is be- 
ing undertaken, not only because it will tend to capital- 



"Ham and — " 1 1 5 

ize the public's good will, but because, in Mr. Clark's 
opinion, it is desirable from the point of view of his cus- 
tomers. When the writer discussed the possibility of 
taking up this work, Mr. Clark emphasized the fact that 
it was his plan only to advertise when he was satisfied 
that promises made could actually be fulfilled. "If we 
talk about serving the best berries on the market, we're 
going to be sure where we are going to buy them. If 
we talk about cleanliness and sanitation, we're going to 
know it is here. If we mention courtesy of service, we 
are going to be reasonably certain that we have the kind 
of an organization to insure courtesy and interest on the 
part of our employees." The argument that advertising 
is a means toward holding a concern to its high stand- 
ards is another motive back of our advertising plans. 

From the very beginning of my connection with the 
company, I have been impressed by the enthusiasm 
which every employee has for "Clark's." One man told 
me that he didn't know, but he guessed "Clark's" was 
his religion, and the spirit, as I have observed it, is the 
same all the way through. If you asked R. D. Clark, 
who has the knack of inspiring the folks who work with 
him, how he caught the vision that success would come 
along the path he is going he would probably tell you 
that he read an article once about the ideas we hear 
about on Sundays being practiced on Mondays and the 
other five days in the week, and that this gave him his 
"hunch." We who are working with him agree that the 
article may have been inspiring, but that perhaps its 
chief value to him was that it summarized the principles 
which, during a number of years in the restaurant busi- 
ness, he had found worked. 



1 1 6 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Clark's lunch counters aim to provide the good, 
wholesome food, the excellent coffee and the quick serv- 
ice which people expect of first class lunch rooms. In 
addition to these more obvious requirements, we are 
studying the other things that customers appreciate, and, 
while we have by no means achieved our ideals, we hope 
that the same reputation which Clark's coffee and Clark's 
quality food now enjoys will extend to the less tangible 
things, which can only come from a spirit of real co- 
operation between our management and our employees, 
who will be working as one, so that the public's confi- 
dence in Clark's cannot be misplaced. 



Coffee -Your Best Friend If Treated Right 

By W. S. QUINBY 

Address Before the Waldorf System, Inc., 

Managers and Employees 

Of all the articles which make up the menu of a 
hotel or restaurant, coffee is probably the least under- 
stood. We draw this conclusion from our experience for 
the last fifteen or twenty years, most of which time has 
been devoted to the study of how to draw a good cup of 
coffee. 

If there is any one thing on the menu that is easy 
for the kitchen or serving counter to produce it is a cup 
of good Coffee. The process of making coffee is the sim- 
plest of all cooking and here, I suppose, is where the 
party responsible for the making of the coffee fails. It is 
so simple that they become careless, and once their 
standard has been lowered each added bit of carelessness 
drops the quality of the product still lower, and hence it 
is so many reputable lunchrooms, restaurants and hotels 
set before their guests unnecessarily an apology for a cup 
of coffee. 

In our endeavors to get what belongs to us out of 
the coffee, we have learnd many things and I am 
very glad of the opportunity to lay before you as 
briefly as I can the result of our experiences and en- 
deavors. There are two fundamentals in the making of 
coffee, which if they can be impressed on your mind 
so that you can never forget them, so that they will be 

117 



118 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

subconscious knowledge, you will have the sure founda- 
tion for a cup of good coffee. 

They are called in the chemical world caffeine and 
tannic acid. Commonly we speak of them as flavor and 
bitterness. Of these two constituents we want all of the 
flavor and very little of the bitterness. To illustrate, we 
will say there is 40 per cent bitterness and 20 per cent 
flavor in coffee. Now wanting as we do all of the flavor 
and mighty little of the bitterness, we must control the 
situation by correct making, and here is a controlling 
fact in the action of these two constituents — a fact very 
rarely known by most of those connected with our kitch- 
ens and many connected with the coffee business. Bit- 
terness or tannin will release at any temperature of water 
— cold or hot. Flavor or caffeine will not release unless 
your water is at boiling, or very, very close to boiling 
point, and at 2 1 2 degrees or the boiling point, you get the 
perfect release. Another fact — tannin is lazy, it releases 
slowly. Caffeine is a lively chap and quick in move- 
ment. 

Now think these controlling facts over and you will 
see that the process of making coffee is a quick process, 
but it also must be an exact process if you want exact 
results. Every action in making coffee must be guided 
by the two facts I have quoted. Water must be boiling, 
galloping on and through the grounds, extracting the 
flavor as it goes by and leaving the tannin behind. You 
cannot leave all the tannin behind, for during the time 
it takes to get the caffeine, even though it does release 
quickly, you will get some tannin and you will get all 
you want. In the first pouring you do not get all of the 
flavor, so consequently once more while the water is still 






Coffee— Your Best Friend If Treated Right 1 1 9 

near the boiling point, put it through again, extracting 
the rest of the flavor and in the two processes getting 
only a little — just a trace — of tannin, and you have a 
perfect cup of coffee. Let it ripen or assimilate 1 5 min- 
utes and serve. That is all there is to making coffee. 

It is mighty simple, but vary a hair from the fun- 
damentals and you go wrong in the process of making. 
It needs the quick, close attention of the trained attend- 
ant, not a skilled chef, but just as close sticking to the 
rule as the most delicate operation in your kitchen. 

Below I give you a chemical analysis of two cups 
of coffee — one made as it is so often — with just water 
and coffee — in which careless process there are forty 
things that will extract the tannin, that bitter flavor 
which is sometimes called strength, but which is really 
just a weak bitterness, and leave behind that delicate 
flavor that we all enjoy. 

Properly Made 

Caffeine, per cup 2.222 grains 

Tannin, per cup 29 grains 

Improperly Made 

Caffeine, per cup 1.75 grains 

Tannin, per cup 2.35 grains 

Vital Don ts 

Don't fail to see that your urn is cleaned daily. 

Don't fail to see that no water leaks into your urn 
from jacket. 

Don't fail to keep urn and all utensils hot at all 
times. 



120 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Don't let your leach bag get sour. 

Don't fail to make sure water is boiling. 

Don't use old water. 

Don't by any means fail to turn liquid coffee over 
sufficiently. 

Don't continue to leach your coffee after you have 
got all its flavor. You will only get undesirable tannin. 

Don't let your leach bag stay in coffee too long. 

Don't use coarse ground coffee. 

Don't fail to be exact in your measurement of 
water. 

Don't fail to be exact in your measurement of dry 
coffee. 

Don't fail to be exact in your measurement of 
cream. 

Don't serve coffee for fifteen minutes after it is 
fully made ; let it get ripe. 

Don't serve coffee several hours old. 

Don't make new coffee on top of old. 

Don't draw coffee in cold cups. 

Don't use new dry coffee before old lot is cleaned 
up. 

Don't try to get percentage by cutting down quality 
of cream. 

If you have several stations and one makes good 
coffee why shouldn't all? 

Don't decide your trouble lies in the coffee until you 
have with your own eyes made sure instructions are 
faithfully carried out. Then again read these rules care- 
fully. 

Please note that in the right way we get much 
caffeine or flavor and almost no tannin or bitterness. 



Coffee — Your Best Friend If Treated Right 121 

In the other way we get very much, too large a percent- 
age of tannin or bitterness, which being the stronger 
simply smothers the flavor and gives us a dead, bitter, 
flavorless, worthless cup of coffee. The above are chemi- 
cally proven facts. 

Now, undoubtedly, you see the importance of keep- 
ing the above two fundamentals as your guiding bea- 
cons. Never forget them for an instant, for as sure as 
you do, you get off your course. 

Boiling, bubbling, galloping water is the thing 
which gets what we want if we act quickly and do not 
let old tannin escape instead of flavor by other little ways 
such as starting with your urn cool, so that when we 
put our coffee back for the pour over it is cool and so 
takes out tannin and not flavor, or our measure is cool 
and so cools off the liquid, or our cups are cold and 
flavor dies and bitterness remains. Same with pots, and 
in fact every single thing, from water to spoons, must 
be piping hot, right up to the guest, if you want a per- 
fect cup of coffee. 

Now how to maintain this standard is important. 
In the best regulated establishments here is the policy 
which produces a fine cup of coffee. The man respon- 
sible for the kitchen knows, and knows thoroughly. He 
has an assistant, and he, in turn, a second assistant, and 
they are kept in training by occasionally having first one 
and then the other make the coffee, and say an early 
lunch or early making for dinner, and the others look 
on and criticize, and so the force is kept well grounded 
in the fundamentals and the entire force become inter- 
ested in how to make good coffee. 



V 



122 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

My observations of twenty years lead me to say 
that in this matter of coffee making I would be very 
exacting, for of all things, even in well regulated kitch- 
ens, the making of coffee is so often neglected and left 
to the ordinary helper that the establishment that draws 
a good cup of coffee certainly has a handicap over the 
great majority. Of all things that go on the table a 
delicious cup of coffee is one of the things that makes a 
lasting and come-back impression. Is not this come- 
back-again impression worth taking the little trouble 
necessary to have thoroughly ground into your kitchen 
organization the simple rules necessary in making good 
coffee? 

The following suggestions are the result in brief 
detail of our practical experience in handling coffee in 
many establishments. 

There is but one best method of making coffee. Use 
a reasonably fine ground coffee and the standard leach- 
ing urn. Pressure urns and other patented methods have 
never yet produced results equal to the method I men- 
tioned above. As a rule, they extract too much tannin 
rather than getting a perfect balance of coffee properties. 
Methods of making coffee advertised to get strength with 
the use of less quantity result in an excess of tannin 
and lack of flavor. Our experience tells us that a gallon 
of water cannot be turned into properly flavored coffee 
with less than eight ounces of dry coffee. Do not be 
fooled into thinking you can use less and get the proper 
amount of flavor. It is not there to be had. 

Below are a few simple rules: 

For hotel and cafe use: 



Coffee — Your Best Friend If Treated Right 1 23 

Use in the proportion of ten to twelve ounces per 
gallon for breakfast according to strength desired. 
Twelve for lunch and for after dinner fourteen to six- 
teen. 

For restaurant: 

Use in proportion of eight to nine ounces per gal- 
lon, except when making one or two gallons at one mak- 
ing, when at least ten ounces per gallon should be used. 
Measure carefully your water and weigh your coffee. 
Pour your water through until the liquid shows a deep 
blood red. Make fresh coffee at frequent intervals. 

New urns must be well boiled out with coffee be- 
fore using to eliminate the taste of leads from the joints. 
Keep the urn clean including the faucets which gather 
grease fast. Scald and scour thoroughly once each day. 
Positively do not allow water in the jacket to leak into 
the urn. Look into the urn each day before making cof- 
fee to see that no water has leaked in over night. 

Keep the water in the jacket of the urn at all times 
near the boiling point. No coffee will hold its flavor 1 
minutes if allowed to get cool and all coffee is ruined if 
allowed to cool and is then warmed up. 

The urn and all utensils must be hot as hades from 
start to finish. Urns with siphon attachments should be 
tested by gallon measure occasionally. 

The leach bag must be kept clean and sweet. Wash 
in clean cold water and never in warm or hot water. 
Keep it in cold sweet water. Muddy coffee is caused by 
the grounds getting into the coffee either by bubbling 
over the top of the bag and working under the ring or 
the mesh of the bag being too coarse. A fine mesh bag 
is one remedy; a double bag better. If the coffee starts 



] 24 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

to bubble over, stir quickly with a big spoon to let the 
air out. Never use cold water to stop it. 

Remove the leach bag and coffee grounds fifteen 
minutes after coffee has been made. 

Water must be boiling at a gallop. Too much im- 
portance cannot be placed upon the kind of water used 
in making coffee. The following directions are vital and 
should be closely adhered to. 

Use fresh water. Boil hard and use at once. 

Don't use water out of jacket or from under urn. 

Water becomes dead or stale even in a tight hot 
water turn and must be kept fresh, by drawing all the 
water out of the urn every night. 

The following per cent fat is recommended in your 
cream : 

20 per cent cream for coffee made 8 ounces to gallon. 
25 per cent cream for coffee made 9 to 10 ounces to 

gallon. 
30 per cent cream for coffee made 1 2 ounces to gallon. 

Fresh cream is necessary — not just sweet, but fresh. 

You will be surprised if you will note how differ- 
ently coffee will show when served with very fresh 
cream or when the cream is near sour or sour or chilled. 

Have your cream tested for fat occasionally. 



The Lunch Room - A Winner in Hotels 

If the writer had predicted ten years ago, or even 
five years ago, that high grade hotels soon would be 
feeding a large proportion of their guests through popu- 
lar priced lunch rooms, he probably would have been 
considered visionary. 

Yet, this is exactly what many of the leading hotels 
of the country are doing today. More will be doing it 
tomorrow. It is a great big man-sized idea that has just 
begun to show what it can do in the way of increasing 
hotel profits. A well equipped and properly operated 
lunch room, selling food at popular prices, can yield a 
bigger net profit than almost any other department of the 
hotel — profit that would not go to the hotel at all did it 
not have the lunch room. 

This is one of the many miracles that are being 
worked out in modern business. Its tremendous possi- 
bilities and unexpected success are making the old-school 
hotel man realize that he is missing something worth 
while by pinning his faith to yesterday's standard of do- 
ing things. 

Many a mighty change is being wrought out in 
catering to the great law of supply and demand these 
days. Only twenty years ago we could read in the maga- 
zines about the wonderful "horseless carriages" that 
could be seen in the streets of Paris. We raised our 
eyebrows just at trifle and then dismissed the subject 
with the thought that maybe here was an invention that 

125 



1 26 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

could be worked down to the cold standards of practica- 
bility — sometime. Well, that "sometime" arrived on 
wings. It is here. And now almost anybody can have 
an automobile. 

The desire to be "shown* * is just as potent among 
hotel men as anybody else. Hence, when it was an- 
nounced that the Palmer House and the Great Northern 
Hotel of Chicago and many other leading hotels of the 
country were putting in lunch counters, it didn't seem 
just right to them. But they began looking into it and 
it proved itself the first time. Now, like the automobile, 
the hotel lunch room proposition is here to stay. There 
is an economic reason behind all this, and this reason 
is that the hotel man has found out that he can make 
money out of the desire of his patrons to save money. 
If anyone were to take the room count of a hotel at any 
time and then find out exactly what percentage of the 
patrons were being fed in the hotel dining room and 
cafe, they would find the average under twenty-five per 
cent. 

Today the cost of living has mounted so high that 
people are being forced to look for every opportunity to 
economize. This is the very proposition that enables 
Mr. Woolworth, Mr. Kresge and others to pull down 
enormous fortunes out of selling merchandise for nickels 
and dimes. People won't buy trash, particularly in food, 
but when they find they can satisfy their hunger in a 
perfectly satisfactory manner for a half or a third less 
than they have been paying, they are more than glad 
to do so. 

The hotel man is finding out that it does not pay to 
create business for other people to gain a profit from. 



The Lunch Room a Winner in Hotels 1 27 

It has too often been his experience that his guests go 
outside to eat. This loss easily can become serious 
enough to take all the cream off the profit that the regu- 
lar hotel cafe and dining room might yield. And the 
average hotel proprietor is a good enough business man 
to analyze the thing and to admit that many of his pa- 
trons are absolutely correct in their attitude. To many 
a traveling man who has to spend $2.50 to $3.00 for 
a room the problem of eating and yet remaining within 
the limitations of his expense bill is decidedly burden- 
some. If he has to pay $1.00 to $2.00 for a meal, he 
runs up a bill that his house is likely to complain about. 
It is no wonder that this man has been lured away from 
the hotel by a cafeteria or a lunch room. If he can get an 
opportunity to satisfy his hunger for 50 cents to 60 
cents, it is the most natural thing in the world for him 
to do so. But when he can get even better service at the 
hotel and make the same saving it is about a hundred 
to one proposition that he will stay in the hotel for his 
eating. 

The same thing holds good in the case of the aver- 
age tourist. Most people travel on limited allowances. 
They want to make their money go as far as possible. 
They may not mind buying a good dinner and paying 
real money for it, but they most likely would want break- 
fast and lunch at moderate prices. The result is that 
they are likely to go outside the hotel to a lunch room 
or cafeteria. But if the hotel can give them the same 
or better service, of course they are going to stay in the 
hotel. 

Hotel men have seen this condition for some time. 
But they have hesitated to establish popular priced lunch 



1 28 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

rooms for fear that such action would detract from their 
dignity and their standing as high class establishments. 

But they have found that the exact opposite is the 
case. They have found that a popular priced lunch 
room can be operated by a high grade hotel on the same 
high plane that characterizes all the other activities of 
the establishment. This does not mean that the service 
is so complete or the equipments so elaborate, but there 
need not be the slightest suspicion of cheapness. Every- 
thing can be high grade — higher grade than in the aver- 
age independent lunch room. 

And, best of all, they have found that the proposi- 
tion actually pays them a fancy profit. One hundred 
per cent gross profit is not at all an unusual figure for a 
hotel lunch room. 

The profit is fancy because the lunch room gives an 
additional outlet for the products of the hotel kitchen, 
and thus eliminating all waste. It keeps the trade that 
naturally belongs in the hotel and draws in other trade 
from the street, thus increasing the hotel's business in 
ways that would be denied it under the usual plan of 
doing business. 

No hotel man need fear that the establishment of a 
modern lunch room in his place is going to cause him to 
lose any of his dining room or cafe patronage. There 
are many hotel guests who will not eat in a popular 
priced lunch room under any circumstances, when the 
higher grade service of a hotel dining room is available. 
They are perfectly willing and able to pay, and they de- 
mand the superior service. Hence, the establishment of 
a lunch room is not going to detract in any appreciable 
degree from the dining room's business. 



ihe Lunch Room a Winner in Hotels 129 

Here is the way for the hotel man to size the thing 
up to himself: 

"I am running a first class hotel. I pride myself on 
having my standards up to a high mark. My rooms are 
good and well furnished. My guests are satisfied with 
the service they receive. So far as the renting of rooms 
is concerned, I am doing well enough, but I am not sell- 
ing all my guests all they would be willing to buy from 
me if I had it to sell. A certain portion of them want 
high class dining room service and are willing to pay for 
it. For these I am operating my present cafe and dining 
room. But to many others the dining room does not 
appeal, because they want to eat less expensively. How 
am I going to interest these people and cause them to 
spend their money with me rather than go outside? If I 
establish a high grade popular priced lunch room, will it 
lessen the dignity of my establishment? I rather think 
not, because the same excellent standard can be main- 
tained in this as in the other departments of my hotel. 

"I have rooms at various prices. So why should I 
not have table service at various prices? But if I do 
establish this lunch room at no loss of prestige and 
standing, will I not lose money through having a lot of 
my present patrons desert the dining room and eat in the 
lunch room? I think I need have no fear about this, 
because a certain number of people always will eat in 
the dining room anyway if they have the opportunity. 
If I do lose an occasional customer from the cafe or din- 
ing room I will gain many more for the lunch room. 
Anyway, if the lunch room will pay a fancy profit, every 
dollar that I gain from that source will have one hundred 
cents in it just the same as the dollar yielded by the 



130 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

dining room. But how about the lunch room patrons? 
Will the high quality of my hotel and my dining room 
be so reflected in the lunch room that they will be im- 
pressed and see that they are getting more for their 
money than they could get from outside lunch rooms? 
I think it extremely likely that they would. People who 
know from experience or otherwise about the high class 
cooking in hotels would feel assured that in patronizing 
the lunch room operated under the same management, 
they will get the same quality of foods. And so the 
whole proposition, I guess, simmers down to the ques- 
tion of whether I do or do not want the additional profit 
from my guests and others that I may just as well have. 
There is no doubt at all that I want this profit, and that 
1 need it. I think I can get it. And so I am going after it." 

All this is purely logical reasoning; the same kind 
of reasoning that has led many other hotel men to es- 
tablish lunch rooms and will lead many more to do so. 

At least two other considerations contribute to the 
growing popularity of the hotel lunch room. One is the 
growing tendency of hotel men to change their estab- 
lishments from the American to the European plan. 
Whatever advantages the European plan may have, it 
undeniably makes it easy for the guest to go outside the 
hotel for his meals if he chooses. This creates a problem 
which can be met by the establishment of a lunch room 
as above described. 

It is not at all a difficult thing for the average up- 
to-date hotel man to see the truth of the situation as I 
have just outlined it. But he may hesitate on account of 
the idea that such an addition would cause a large in- 
crease in his overhead expense. Not so. His outlay 



The Lunch Room a Winner in Hotels 131 

would be for the additional equipment required. And 
it is really amazing how far a little money will go in this 
particular. Practically no addition in the kitchen force 
is necessary to provide the additional food required in the 
lunch room. And it is also surprising how little addi- 
tional food is required. 

Any experienced hotel man will readily appreciate 
that a lunch room offers opportunities to dispose of any 
excess food, which may have been cooked for his regu- 
lar cafe or dining room. He will also recognize that he 
has the advantage of already having a completely fitted 
kitchen in which to prepare the foods for the lunch room 
other than short orders, and this can be done with prac- 
tically no extra help, thus reducing his lunch room over- 
head very materially as well as his kitchen overhead. 

How shall a hotel man go about it to equip himself 
along these lines? 

There are three distinct classes of lunch rooms in 
use. First, the lunch counter; second, the dairy lunch, 
and third, the cafeteria. Each one requires its own spe- 
cial equipment. 

For the lunch counter, if the room permits, a horse- 
shoe counter is best. The most attractive that can be 
made is an all-glass exterior and top substantially held 
by an all-metal frame, the front to be trimmed in nickel- 
silver or baked enamel, representing mahogany, oak, 
walnut, or verde-antique bronze. The rear should be 
supplied with metal drawers and marble shelves. Top 
should be at least one inch In thickness and of glass 
ground on one side and polished on the other to make an 
absolutely even top. This makes an absolutely germ 



132 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

proof and roach proof construction, which will last for 
years and keep its attractive appearance. 

Going with this should be porcelain base stools with 
mahogany or oak seats and a solid nickel-silver foot rail 
resting on floor. In the center of the room, either open 
or enclosed, should be a long center display stand of the 
same construction as the front of the counter, with open 
white glass shelves underneath and above, making a tier 
of five or six in all. Where the law requires, this may 
be enclosed with sliding doors on both sides to prevent 
flies from coming in contact with the food. There also 
should be a combination cream cabinet and water cooler, 
so arranged that cans of milk and packing cans of ice 
cream may be properly refrigerated, and this ice may be 
used to cool butter set on chips in a series of drawers 
and also to cool the drinking water. 

Next to this there should be a cup warmer with a 
large battery of urns. All these fixtures should be made 
of white porcelain enamel on steel plates in nickel-silver 
frames, and you will have an equipment which will last 
for years and always look well. If space permits, glass 
top tables should be set around the edge of the room 
outside the counter. Service here should be given at 
counter prices. Around the walls plenty of coat racks 
should be furnished. The most practical is the double- 
bar type which holds the hat on top and to which hooks 
are fastened for holding coats. 

The walls should be tiled to a height of 7 feet and 
the floor covered with mosaic tile. 

This description represents the highest class of 
equipment that can be furnished. This may be varied, 
from a counter with glass top on down to a wooden 



The Lunch Room a Winner in Hotels 133 

counter with glass, or as expense demands, a porcelain 
top or a wooden counter with polished wood top. 

The next two classes of restaurants, dairy lunch and 
cafeteria, belong to the serve-self class and the menus 
are more limited. 

The dairy lunch generally offers the same things 
every day. There is usually a short counter some 20 
or 22 feet in length extending across the short end of 
the room, back of which is a short-order kitchen supplied 
with short-order range, ice box and dishwashing pantry. 
Directly in front of this against the wall, are two cream 
cabinets, one on either side of a cup warmer holding a 
battery of urns. The counter proper is built at least 42 
inches high by 36 inches wide, and has a low steam table 
directly in the center. On top of the counter are en- 
closed display shelves leaving an open serving space be- 
tween. In the center of this space should be an insulated 
ice pan where salads, crushed fruits, etc., may be dis- 
played. The back wall should be supplied with plenty 
of shelves for cut pies and for display purposes of all 
sorts. In the center of the room is a stand stocked with 
sugar, relishes, napkins, etc. There should also be a 
water cooler, which will give an unlimited supply of ice 
water, with a series of tumbler racks at the side. The 
customer uses the dairy lunch or arm chair for his table. 
This is the type of restaurant which has made J. A. 
Whitcomb, originator of the Baltimore Dairy Lunch, 
John R. Thompson and Charles Weeghman famous all 
over the country, and if properly operated is always a big 
paying proposition. 

The cafeteria differs from the dairy lunch in having 
a larger counter and much larger menu, and using tables 



134 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

with either linen covers or bare glass tops and restaurant 
chairs for the customers. In the construction of the 
cafeteria counter, the same ideas should be considered 
that the retail merchant makes use of in his display win- 
dows. Have plenty of space and shelving. Wherever it 
is possible, put in a back counter from 1 2 to 24 inches 
wide with a series of shelves and keep these continually 
covered with food products of all sorts, both in original 
and broken packages, arranged in tempting array. In 
arrangement of the counter, leave ample space for the 
patrons to pass, thus doing away with the Indian file idea 
that causes so much delay. It is desirable to place upon 
the counter preceding the steam table an attractive as-- 
sortment of salads and cold meats. If these are brought 
into prominence first, many people will make a selection 
from them who would not otherwise do so. 

There should always be plenty of signs showing the 
departments into which the counter has been divided. 
Each department should have complete equipment. Ice 
pans sunk level with the counter with insulated sides 
pay for themselves many times a month. A separate 
warmer for breads should be supplied. The steam table 
should be ample for a large menu. Ice cream and milk 
should be served from cream cabinets sunk in the coun- 
ter. Wherever possible, puddings, sauces and pastry 
should be placed on elevated shelves ready for the cus- 
tomer to take. 

On the back counter there should be a large short- 
order box for keeping supplies for the salad pans and 
auxiliary cream and milk cabinets. It is best to have the 
urn stand set at right angles to the length of the counter. 
This stand, in addition to the three-piece battery, should 



The Lunch Room a Winner in Hotels 135 

be supplied with a hot chocolate urn and cream urn. 
Such a counter may be made to take care of 600 to 700 
people per hour. 

There is nothing superior to the all-glass construc- 
tion in appearance or durability. Next would come a 
white porcelain nickel-silver trimmed front with glass 
top. Marble is not desirable as it stains. If wood panel 
construction is used, it is necessary to insulate carefully 
in front of steam tables and refrigerators, or they are 
likely to warp and give way. 

The whole proposition is practical and workable. 
The necessary investment is reasonable. The overhead, 
figured in connection with the hotel is low. The profits 
are fancy. 

We are indebted to the engineers of Albert Pick & 
Company for this chapter. 



The Inside Secrets of a Lunch Room Success 

By KURT HEPPE 

The restaurant was turned over to a new manager. 
And, well, it should be. 

The restaurant had been losing money. 
It was situated on an upper floor, and catered only to 
cheap trade. 

The manager's job it was to reduce the expenses, 
and increase the income. How could that be done? 

After careful analysis it was found that the reason 
for poor patronage was poor food. 

Low quality, and material carelessly prepared, had 
created a prejudice. 

To overcome this, the manager had to increase the 
loss, at first. He increased the crew, raised the quality, 
accelerated the service, speeded the dishing and im- 
proved the cooking. 

The prejudice had been so pronounced that it was 
necessary to practically give food away in order to at- 
tract trade. 

But after patrons were coming, the expense ac- 
count was trimmed as follows: 

All necessary supplies were bought short. That 
means, there was bought just a little less than was act- 
ually necessary, so that the chef, on overlooking his sup- 
plies, involuntarily exclaimed: "How in Hades am I 
going to get along today?" 

136 



The Inside Secrets of a Lunch Room Success 137 

It is a trait of human nature, that people, when 
given plenty, will dig in. 

Bread, which had been a four-inch loaf, was 
changed to a three and a half-inch loaf. This little trick 
remained unnoticed by the patrons, and yet it saved the 
house a large sum. The sandwich portion was thereby 
reduced a quarter ounce in meat, and the waste bread, 
which formerly had been crowding the boxes, was now 
conspicuous by its absence. 

But not only that, the loaf, thus reduced, cost 13 Yl 
cents, instead of /eighteen, and for the difference, six 
dozen crullers were bought. The bread bill remained 
the same, but a new source of income had been created. 
Thirty-six orders of crullers, means fifty-four dollars a 
month. The saving on sandwiches amounted to a fur- 
ther thirty dollars a month. 

The meat rations, which had been all the way from 
three and a half to four ounces, were reduced to a strict 
three ounces. An ounce scale was bought, and every 
once in a while, when a portion seemed big, it was put 
on the scale, and the chef's eye-measure corrected. 

Home-made pies were done away with, and store 
pies put on. Daily saving: two dollars and seventy-five 
cents. 

Sugar was rationed in paper envelopes. This was 
possible, as there was a shortage at the time. No kicks 
were heard. Saving: sixty cents a day. 

Fresh vegetables were replaced by canned. Saving : 
fifty dollars a month, plus one man who had been em- 
ployed in preparing and washing them. This meant an 
additional saving of seventy-five dollars. 



1 38 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Cooking butter was replaced by margarine ; saving : 
one dollar and twenty cents a day. 

Fresh eggs, in the kitchen, were replaced by stor- 
age; saving: one dollar sixty a day. 

Through the introduction of a steamer, gas was 
saved to the extent of twelve dollars a month. 

At night, when the rougher element was patroniz- 
ing the restaurant, linen nakpins were replaced by paper. 
Saving: thirty dollars a month. 

In accordance with the steady rise of commodity 
prices, the rates were also increased. 

All expensive materials were entirely excluded. For 
instance, was maple syrup barred, and Karo enlisted. 

Expensive groceries were replaced by government 
products, sold by the city, saving: fifty dollars a month. 

A premium was paid the garbage man for the re- 
turn of silverware. Besides this, groceries were sold to 
the employees with a small margin of profit, which added 
good will to a small gain. Result: fifteen dollars a 
month. 

Of course, one must understand, that a restaurant 
man is not a sorcerer, and cannot grab money from the 
air. Savings can only be effected through small mar- 
ginal transactions, such as those above described. 

In a restaurant it is necessary for the manager to 
closely supervise the cutting of pies and bread. An em- 
ployee, will favor the patrons, and will cut seven por- 
tions where the manager would get eight. 

To meats the same thing applies. 

It is of great importance whether all steaks weigh 
uniformly. 

The steak trimmings can be used for stews. 






The Inside Secrets of a Lunch Room Success 139 

Slicing machines for cold meats and cheese are 
economical. 

All portions should be cut to weight. 

Recipes, in an indexed book, on the chef's desk, 
with quantities defined, will make quality always uni- 
form. 

This also makes close cost-accounting possible. 

Where an experienced meat-cutter is not available, 
the manager or one of his assistants should study the 
art of trimming. In the afternoon, during slack hours, 
the butcher will undoubtedly be willing to send one of 
his men to give necessary guidance. 

The supply houses can also often give valuable 
suggestions. 

The vegetable dealer should, every once in a while, 
be called, the same as the butcher, to explain defects of 
merchandise. This will give them to understand that 
they are closely watched. 

The quotation sheets of the different dealers should 
be compared with one another for, while ordinarily the 
prices are about the same, once in a while it happens 
that one dealer has access to markets, which makes it 
possible for him to sell under the market. 

There are many standards, grades and measures in 
the commission business. When buying things one 
must closely inquire about the weight, the quality, the 
purpose and the keeping characteristics of the merchan- 
dise. Only close observation and supervision make con- 
trolling possible. 

Keeping store-rooms and ice-boxes locked, and 
back doors securely closed, is a necessary precaution. 



140 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Employees can munch more between meals than 
can be sold in a rush, and when they pick, they choose 
the best. 

Buying in small quantities is a virtue. The more 
there is the more will be used. 

Most patrons can not tell whether margarine or but- 
ter is used in cooking. They do not know whether fresh 
or storage eggs are employed. Most patrons cannot dis- 
tinguish between home-made and good store pies. 1 hey 
do not realize the value of home-made breads, and to few 
the difference between whole-grain products and denat- 
ured is unknown. 

To increase trade one must have a few good meats, 
good bakery goods, good coffee. 

These are the things the average man can tell. But 
the finer arts are completely lost upon him. 

Restaurants are not in business for their health. 
They want to make money. 

In order to beat competition they have to give the 
patron what he wants. And what he wants is quantity 
and low price. 

With prevailing costs one must save at the bung- 
hole, and disregard conscientious scruples. 

Until the patron appreciates purity and is willing to 
pay for it, so long one must be satisfied to give him what 
he wants. And what he wants is: Quantity and low 
prices ! 



The Future of the Business 

By KENNETH HOOVER 

In a restaurant the guest-check indicates the class 
of patrons. If the average can be raised, a different class 
can be induced to patronize the business. When it be- 
comes desirable to so change the crowd, one must be 
cautious in one's methods. 

In such a case it is economically — just, to retain 
the undesirables until a newcomer for every old-timer 
has been secured. 

Inasmuch as it is the high-check patron who makes 
a restaurant profitable, it must be the restaurant man's 
concern to attract that sort of trade. 

This was done in New York by appealing to the 
scientific side of human nature. One caterer made his 
stand on scientific foods. He had little booklets printed, 
wherein he endeavored to prove that foods cure. He 
argued that a milk-egg-vegetable diet is the most rational 
for man. He explained the great influence which food 
has upon the health of the body. 

The booklets cost only a cent apiece. But they 
made people talk about the restaurant. Patrons were 
wont to take the booklets to their office and start discus- 
sions on the veracity of the restaurant man's claim. This 
induced others to frequent the place. They came to find 
whether the booklets were a bluff or whether there really 
was a man who had made a study of the dietetic qualities 
of food. 

141 



142 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

And with this he won them over. He demonstrated 
that he cooked by standards and by science. 

His vegetables were steamed; they did not come in 
contact with water; consequently they retained all their 
mineral salts. 

His spinach was clean, not sandy; furthermore, it 
was juicy and appetizing; not dried-out, or overcooked, 
or tasteless, or half cold. 

He took especial care that all food was served per- 
fectly hot and in proper condition. He did not leave the 
matter in the hands of hirelings. He did not permit the 
preparation of huge quantities of food, which were then 
kept on the range to be served during the rush. He en- 
gaged sufficient help to prepare the food, freshly cooked, 
as it was needed on the counter. 

He used only butter, salt and pepper in his steam- 
cooked vegetables. He had little suggestion-menus for 
those who wished to live upon a vegetarian diet. While 
he himself was not a vegetarian, and not riding the 
moral side of the question, he agreed with dietitians, that 
city people, who do not do any hard muscular work, 
should live upon a milk-egg-vegetable diet. 

And for this purpose he had special dishes made, 
which contained, in one platter, an entire vegetarian din- 
ner. There were stewed fruits, nuts, raisins, figs and 
dates, a glass of milk, whole wheat bread, a plenty of 
fresh butter, and every day three different vegetables 
with one poached egg. 

This bill did not require special preparation, but 
went along with the rest of the dinner. All he installed 
was a high-pressure steamer. He derived the benefit 



The Future of the Business 143 

that the meat-eaters also obtained their vegetables prop- 
erly cooked. 

There is a vast difference between steam-cooked 
and water-cooked vegetables. A difference so vast that 
even the layman must admit that here is the solution of 
an age-old problem. 

Inveterate cooks, old-timers, those who greet with 
derision every innovation, have been found to admit that 
the steam-cooker is a triumph of modern restaurant sci- 
ence. 

While at first loath to use it, they freely confess, 
after a trial, that the steam-cooker is a time and labor 
saver. It is an all-around kitchen assistant. No longer 
is it necessary to have the range encumbered with all 
kinds of pots. The vegetables are prepared and put into 
the baskets and kept in the icebox until they are needed. 
Then they are pushed into the steamer. The valve is 
opened and the baskets are out of sight. They stay so 
until, when ready, they are extracted. The perfectly 
cooked vegetables are put on the serving table and the 
savory food is dispensed to the patrons of the place. 

Scientific restaurant-cooking is gradually taking the 
place of old and indifferent methods. It makes catering 
easy. And it puts money in the bank. Would it pay 
the lunch-room or cafeteria to cater on a basis of stand- 
ards? 

Every progress is worth consideration. 

Did you ever give a thought to the possibilities of 
the catering business? 

The catering business has a greater educational op- 
portunity than the moving picture industry. Only, the 
average restaurant man cannot see it. If restaurant men 



144 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

were as far-sighted as moving picture promoters they 
would not permit another industry to take the butter 
from their bread. 

What is nearer to a human stomach? A picture 
or a meal? Would a man rather go to a theater or miss 
his dinner? 

The answer is easy! 

Then why not make your stand on the educational 
side of the catering industry? 

Why not try to show people that they can live to 
be a hundred by eating iri your place? 

Why not explain that they can save the doctor's 
bills, and ruin the drug store by becoming frequenters 
of your business? 

Everything in this world depends upon the view- 
point. Take the stand that the restaurant business is 
the leading industry, and that, if it has not yet reached 
the apex of achievement, you are going to lead it. 

Show your compatriots how to beat competition. 
Adopt new methods! Assume an optimistic attitude! 
There are vast possibilities. The future is immense. 



Turning a Failure Into a Success 

By FREDERICK J. BURNETT 

"There they go, there they go, the first lot of 'em, 
a hundred or so, all hungry, and only five come in here," 
snarled Penner, as he took Rush's quarter and dropped 
two nickels in the change dish, keeping an eye mean- 
while on the passing throng. 

He had spoken his thought without meaning to. 
The people from the office building next door who went 
by every day without ever coming in to see what his 
neat cafeteria lunch room was like exasperated him be- 
yond measure. 

"I wish somebody* d tell me why nearly the whole 
bunch of those fellers from the bank building goes by 
here day after day to lunch somewhere else, when they 
can't get any better for the money than I'd give 'em, 
and ain't like to get anywhere near as good," he con- 
tinued, when he realized he had thought aloud. 

"Ever ask *em in?" inquired Rush, as he pocketed 
his change. 

"Ask *em in?" flared Penner, stepping out of the 
cashier's desk to make room for the usual occupant, who 
came from the back of the room chewing a toothpick. 
"Don't I open one of the cleanest and best lunch rooms 
in town, right under their nose? What more'd you 
have me do, go out on the walk and buttonhole 'em, like 
the runner for a cheap John clothing joint, or bark 'em 
in like a side-show sharp?" 

145 



146 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

"There are different ways of buttonholing and 
barking," laughed Rush, looking up from the Perfectos 
in the show case that he had been regarding wistfully. 
"Come over here in the corner, Jud, you can spare a 
few minutes before the noon crowd comes. 

"You've heard about the man in the Good Book, 
Jud, who got up a great feed and then had to send his 
cohorts out into the highways and hedges to make 'em 
come in and eat?" asked Rush, when they had moved 
over by the window. 

"I used to go to Sunday school," Penner growled. 

"Well, people are very much like that yet, only 
more so. They don't go such an awful lot where they're 
not asked, whether it's a wedding or a — -restaurant. To 
have a good proposition isn't enough, you've got to tell 
'em about it, and ask 'em to come." 

Penner shrugged his shoulders and continued to 
look out of the window. It seemed to him he was doing 
all that could be expected when he served as good food 
at as reasonable prices as he did. 

"Those fellows from your skyscraper neighbor 
went by here because they've gotten in the habit of go- 
ing somewhere else. Most of em went where they did 
yesterday, and the day before and all last week. They'll 
keep on going by, if you don't get after 'em. Your 
problem is to change their habits, to get 'em in the habit 
of coming in here. You need an advertising manager, 
Jud, to get after *em proper." 

"An advertising manager? Think I'm a depart- 
ment store or a cracker trust?" 

"Oh, I don't mean you need a whole one. You 
can get a sandwich without having to buy a whole ham." 



Turning a Faiure Into a Success 147 

"I don't follow you.'* 

"If you need a few hours of an ad man's time you 
don't have to hire him by the year, any more than you 
need to keep a salaried lawyer to get what legal advice 
you need. 

"Look here, Jud, I've quit my job and gone into 
that line. I'm sort of an attorney and counsellor at ad- 
vertising and I want you for a client. This job appeals 
to me. I want to show you how to make that crowd 
come in instead of go by. Your busy time is about now. 
I'll be back at three or four." 

It was noon and more people were coming in for 
lunch; not as many as Penner would like. He wanted 
a crowd that would justify leasing the room next door 
that was to be vacant soon. He was a man short that 
day and there were enough so he had to lend a hand 
here and there caring for them, but at no time were all 
the tables and all the broad-armed chairs filled. 

At half -past three Rush was back with some sheets 
of paper, and they sat down together in one corner of 
the room, now empty of customers save a messenger 
boy and a chauffeur, whose car stood out in front. 

"I've engaged myself as your advertising manager, 
beginning today, on the ham sandwich basis," an- 
nounced Rush. 

"Have, eh? How much you goin' to pay your- 
self?" grunted Penner, dropping into one of the broad- 
armed chairs. 

"I won't send in any bill for services until we see 
how things are coming, and I won't ask more than you 
think I earn. I'm just beginning in this line and scoring 
will mean as much to me as to you. Whatever I charge 



148 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

for the first two weeks I'll take out in eats; you can give 
me a line of credit at the cashier's desk and we'll settle 
accounts later, so my charges won't bother you much. 

"Now, the first thing for you to do is to lay for the 
crowd in the skyscraper. You're more convenient for 
them and are the natural place for them to go. There 
are several classes of people in that building who must 
lunch somewhere; one of 'em is the clerks and small 
fellows whose appetites are bigger than their incomes, 
who want to satisfy their hunger for what they can 
afford to pay and yet like to go where it's decently clean. 
I know something about that class. They hate to be 
handed a thin, dried up piece of pie or a stack of wheats 
smaller than they expected. It means they spend more 
than they meant to or go away not quite satisfied.'* 

"We don't do that here." 

"I know it; you're good to that sort and they're 
about the biggest class — in numbers. Then there are 
the business women, who care for neatness and don't 
like to go to a strictly men's lunch room — like to know 
they won't be the only women there. Say we get after 
these two classes first. There are others, but you don't 
want more of a crowd than you can handle. Get 'em 
coming gradually, then you can know what to figure on. 
Pretty soon you'll want more room." 

Penner thought of the room next door. He had de- 
cided long ago where he would have the connecting 
openings. 

"Here's a dummy," exclaimed Rush, spreading out 
one of his papers, "for the first crowd." 

"Lunch for a hungry man who does not want to 
waste his time or money. 



Turning a Faiure Into a Success 149 

* 'Everything on this bill of fare is strictly first class, 
the portions are larger and they taste better than you 
would expect for the price. 

"We make our own pies and they are thicker and 
better than you ever found anywhere else. 

"Today, for Ten Cents, for 1 5 Cents, for 20 Cents, 
for 25 Cents. 

"Penner's Lunch, one door east of the 

Bank Building. 

"Get-acquainted coupon. This coupon will be ac- 
cepted today, February 1 2, 19 , one from a customer, 

as five cents on any check, at Penner's Lunch.* ' 

"You want to put in here,*' he indicated the blank 
spaces following the two prices, "what you are going to 
serve tomorrow, your bill of fare ; that is, every dish that 
is ten to twenty-five cents, which about takes everything. 
Have this printed according to directions I've written on 
it. Get 'em right off, and tomorrow, about ten, have 
'em distributed through every floor in every office in the 
bank building. Have one of your men in one of those 
white jackets witH a red P do it. Be sure the jacket is 
absolutely clean and the man has a fresh shave and is 
spruced up so he's a good ad for the place. If your 
cashier'd do it, maybe that would be better. 

"Have the bills put on the desks of the clerks, rather 
than the higher-ups; they come later; this is for the 
clerks." 

Rush rattled this off like a rapid-fire gun, but Pen- 
ner managed to follow him with the aid of the dummy 
handbill, which he was slowly digesting. 



1 50 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

"Say, Tommy," he demured, at the first pause. "I 
don't know about this givin' everybody five cents on 
top of the printing and all." 

"Don't shy at the free sample, Jud," Rush cau- 
tioned, "that's a great card. All the breakfast food fel- 
lows have given away five-cent samples for the prospect 
of smaller orders per than you're bidding for. You're 
giving it with a sale, and it's five cents worth of eats, not 
five cents in cash. Most of those who bring in the cou- 
pons will spend just as much as they would, anyway; 
the coupon will mean something extra. Most of 'em 
will be new customers and the bills will bring in some 
new ones who won't bother with the coupon. It's all* 
in one day, and if you can't afford to give five cents in 
trade to get a new customer into the room, your scheme 
of business wants reorganizing. You could afford to 
give away a few full lunches to get 'em coming here." 

"All right, Tommy, let her go," Penner assented, 
rather helplessly. 

"Now for the girls," and Rush produced another 
sheet of paper, which read: 

"Did you ever lunch at Penner' s? 

"We make a special effort to please the ladies. 

"Everything we serve is prepared as daintily as if 
it came from your mother's kitchen. 

"No annoying waits. You can lunch in comfort 
and have more than half your lunch hour for shopping. 

"We will have today some particularly appetizing 
hot roast beef handwiches and some of our extra thick 
lemon pie — real lemons. 

"It would afford us great pleasure to serve you this 
noon. 



Turning a Faiure Into a Success 1 5 1 

"Penner's Lunch, next door east of the 

Bank Building." 

"This is to be printed on a square card, correspond- 
ence card style, according to these directions." He indi- 
cated some memorandum on the sheet. "When the 
handbills are distributed have whoever does it give one 
of the cards to every woman he sees at work in the build- 
ing. Give 'em the handbills, too, or leave enough so 
anyone who wants a coupon can get one. 

"This won't bring the whole building, but it will 
make a dent. Those who come and are satisfied will 
likely come again next day and bring others. This 
starts the ball rolling, starts 'em comin' in instead of 
goin' by. 

"Now, for Wednesday, get up another bill with a 
different bill of fare on the same plan. Start it like this:" 
Rush unfolded another sheet of paper, which read: 

"A better lunch for the price than you can get else- 
where. 

"That is what we mean to give you. 

"Our long experience and our wait-on-yourself 
plan enables us to do this. 

"If you accepted our invitation yesterday we hope 
you were satisfied and will come again today. 

"If you did not lunch with us yesterday, will you 
not come today and see what a satisfying lunch we can 
give you at a reasonable price?" 

Then insert your bill of fare, after the fashion of 
the first one, and add this coupon." 

The coupon read: 

"Get Acquainted Coupon No. 2. 



1 52 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

* Today, February 13th, from eleven until two, this 
coupon is good for a cup of coffee on any check. One 
from a customer. Penner's Lunch. Next door east of 
Bank Building." 

Penner did not demur at the second free sample. 
He was beginning to see a light. He told Rush to go 
ahead, regardless of the speed limit. 

They found a printer who would get the work out 
that afternoon, and the next morning it was ready to dis- 
tribute. About ten o'clock two men in white jackets 
with a red P on them, and white caps, left the bills and 
cards in every room in the big building. Then they 
made the place ready for an extra and critical crowd and* 
waited for half -past eleven, when the first lunchers in 
any number were let out. 

As near as he could figure, Penner thought he got 
about half of those he knew came out of the skyscraper, 
instead of the few that had come the day before, and 
the proportion kept up when the noon and one o'clock 
relays came out. There were many women among them 
and for once people had to stand a few minutes until 
places were vacant, which brought joy to Penner's heart. 
A great many of the coupons came, more than he had 
expected, but there were more new faces than coupons. 

After two the place was re-arranged and more seats 
provided. Rush came in while this was going on and 
they held a brief council of war during which he pro- 
duced another dummy. 

'This is to be printed on a card," he explained, 
"business card size. They are to be handed to people as 
they leave. The cashier can hand them out when checks 



Turning a Faiure Into a Success 1 53 

are paid, or when you have a boy opening the door he 
can give them out.'* 

The copy read: 

"Thank you. Your patranage is appreciated and 
we hope you will come again. 

"We trust you found both food and service entirely 
satisfactory. If not, you will confer a favor by telling 
us what was amiss. 

"Please remember that we serve breakfast and din- 
ner, as well as lunch, and are ready to feed the hungry 

at any time. Penner's. Next door to 

Bank Building." 

"This will give 'em a hunch to come here for break- 
fast and dinner also. It's principally to get after the 
fellows who rent a room and take their meals anywhere. 
But it will please 'most anyone to be thanked and asked 
to come again." 

Every day Rush brought in copy for a new hand- 
bill to be distributed in the bank building, giving some 
reason why people should go to Penner's, always com- 
bined with the noonday bill of fare, and always different. 
Every day he got up a new card to be handed to cus- 
tomers expressing pleasure at their presence and saying 
a few words to make them want to come again, like: 

"Tomorrow morning we will serve real buckwheat 
:akes with pure maple syrup — the kind with the old- 
fashioned taste. There will be some country sausage, 
too." 

Or: 

"Hens are laying again. How would you like some 
eggs, fresh from the farm, for breakfast tomorrow? We 
will have them." 



I 54 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Or: 

'There are some fine turkeys roasting for dinner 
tonight, with oyster stuffing." 

If there were any more handbills than were used 
in the bank building, they were distributed in other 
nearby buildings; if there were any thank you cards 
left, they were saved a few days, or given to those who 
were known to be new customers. The same card was 
never handed to the same person on succeeding days. 

"You see, Jud," Rush would say, "people will re- 
spond to suggestions regarding what they eat. Your 
menus are kicking about their desks when they begin 
to think about lunch. They decide what they want and 
think about it, some of 'em, till you couldn't keep 'em 
away with a club. You keep suggesting things they 
hadn't thought of, or things of which they are especially 
fond, and make 'em hungry for some." 

Before the store next door was vacant Penner knew 
he needed it, and the lease was signed. As soon as he 
got possession and the connecting arches were made, 
Rush unfolded a further plan. 

"We'll get after the higher-ups now, the roll-top 
desk ones/' he announced. "They are open to sugges- 
tion, as well as the smaller fry, but of a different kind. 
They don't care so much what they spend if what they 
get is good and worth the price. We want to make them 
see that they can save a lot of time by coming here and 
get as good eats as anywhere. We want to tell them 
if they spend all the time they can spare for lunch eating 
and none waiting, the more leisurely eating will help 
digestion — lots of the higher-ups have to think of their 
digestions. Then we want to think of appetizing, satis- 



Turning a Faiure Into a Success 155 

fying, digestible dishes and play strong on them." 

Some cards were prepared with these ends in view 
and left on the roll- top desks, and again the results was 
highly satisfactory. 

People began to comment to Penner on his adver- 
tising and he was able to send more than one client to 
Rush. 

The advertising field had been considerably ex- 
tended now and handbills and cards were distributed in 
other of the nearer office buildings, the result of which 
was that from half-past eleven until nearly two every- 
one at Penner' s was on the jump. 

One day Penner suggested to Rush that he needed 
the boys who were distributing the literature for other 
work, and that, as things were coming their way pretty 
well, they might stop the advertising. 

"Not on your life, Jud!" Rush warned him. "If 
it's worth while advertising to get business, it's worth 
while keeping it up to hold what you've got. Your plant 
isn't doing all it can yet?" 

"Oh, not quite, I suppose, but we're pretty busy 
three times a day," replied Penner. 

"How about the middle of the morning and the 
late afternoon?" 

"Nobody wants to eat then." 

"How about the women down street shopping." 

"Ain't they a little out of my line?" 

"Nothing's out of your line that you want and can 
get. Go for them. We'll tell them how much a re- 
freshing cup of tea or chocolate or bouillon, with some 
toast or muffins and a salad will do to make a shopping 
expendition less exhausting, or brace them up after the 



1 56 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

matinee. You're handy to the shopping district and the 
theatres, you ought to catch quite a crowd. I'll get up 
copy for stuff to send by mail — you can get addresses 
from the Woman's Club register and the Blue Book. 
Then we'll run some ads in the papers. There won't 
be waste circulation for that, all the women in town are 
possible customers; where they live won't matter. You 
ought to keep the place busy all day with the right sort 
of copy and the right sort of food. Besides what I've 
mentioned, have whole wheat wafers and rusks, and 
Charlotte Russes and such like, and in warmer weather 
fruit salads and gelatine things." 

"Gee!" Penner explaimed, "and I thought it was 
time to quit advertising. You'll have me renting up- 
stairs next." 

"The time to stop advertising, Jud, is when you 
don't want any more business." 

"But can we get 'em to come here?" 

"With a good proposition — you have that — and 
proper advertising — I'll give you that — you can get peo- 
ple to go anywhere. That's a combination that always 
wins." 



Poor Ventilation Kills Appetites 

By G. C. BREIDERT 

A well known owner of a number of large profit- 
able restaurants stated in answer to a question about his 
policies — "Poor ventilation and an uninviting atmos- 
phere kills any appetite — never let a patron come in 
with a 75 cent appetite and walk out with only a 1 5 cent 
meal ticket." 

In this remark can be seen actual "profits" dwind- 
ling away because of false economy. The "buying pub- 
lic" no longer is attracted by bargain prices alone. If 
the conditions under which a shopper must buy are not 
comfortable, then the attraction of "bargain prices" is 
not sufficient to undergo a hardship to gain thereby. This 
unquestionably is true with people who patronize res- 
taurants and cafes. It is hard to conceive of anything 
that is more resented than those greasy fumes and cook- 
ing odors which permeate throughout a restaurant where 
proper ventilation is lacking. 

Many people perhaps are forced to dine in these 
conditions. This is due to the lack of restaurant com- 
petition. Notwithstanding the "upper hand" position 
many restaurant owners enjoy, they nevertheless are 
face to face with a lower revenue than might be enjoyed 
by creating an inviting and appetizing atmosphere. This 
is obviously so, according to the statement in the open- 
ing paragraph. 

157 



I 58 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Where competition prevails, the restaurant offering 
the best food at consistent prices served in an atmos- 
phere that is inviting and appetizing, usually attracts the 
bulk of patronage. Appetizing food, modern furnish- 
ings and good service, however, count for nothing if the 
air in a dining room is contaminated with greasy fumes 
and conglomeration of cooking odors. 

It is human nature the world over to frequent the 
restaurant or cafe which provides the utmost in com- 
fort for its patrons. Costly decorations and over zeal- 
ousness alone are not conducive to permanent and prof- 
itable success. Nothing is more inviting and adds more 
zest to a meal than pure fresh air — free from odors' 
which might change an appetite. It is more desirable 
to pay less for fancy fixtures and decorations (very often 
this is overdone), which saving could be more profitably 
applied towards the cost of a good ventilating system. 
An effective system does not necessarily mean that the 
cost is beyond means. On the contrary many locations 
of kitchens are ideal for proper and economical systems. 

The matter of patrons' comfort, of course, should 
be foremost in the minds of restaurant operators. There 
are, however, several other factors which make ventila- 
tion a necessity rather than is erroneously supposed, — 
a secondary consideration. Numerated they are as fol- 
lows: 

1 . Poor ventilation spoils foodstuffs. 

2. Excessive heat increases ice box bills. 

3. Heat and lack of ventilation is irritating and 
lowers the efficiency of kitchen help. 

4. Greasy fumes spoil decorations. 



Poor Ventilation Kills Appetites 



159 



Take these points up in their consecutive order. In 
the first instance — "poor ventilation spoils foodstuffs.** 
By this is meant that any prevailing odors and foul air 
have a very penetrating effect. Hence butter, eggs and 
pastry often have an unnatural taste. In addition to this, 
fresh meats and vegetables will decay more rapidly when 



WIWTOW 




EXHAUST 
FAN 



r*phnr 



Fiq.l 



n 3 . 



exposed to high temperatures naturally existing in a 
kitchen. This condition, of course, is present every day 
and is preventable. 



160 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

The second point — "excessive heat increases ice 
box bills" — is one that confronts most restaurant own- 
ers. It is easily recognized that an ice box exposed to 
high temperature will melt more ice than one situated 
in a cooler atmosphere. The saving of ice, of course, is 
a matter that is not insignificant. 

The third point is one that is to be considered seri- 
ously. The question of "labor" today is most perplex- 
ing. Help is scarce and inexperienced. Even without 
considering this present day situation — it is a physical 
impossibility to work hour after hour in a space where 
high temperature prevails without becoming irritable 
and nervous. Naturally then, help thusly affected can- 
not perform their duty harmoniously. Mr. Bruce Ad- 
dington in his industrial research work found that the 
vitality of a human being rapidly decreases hourly where 
there is a lack of fresh air. 

In the fourth point we again can see where an act- 
ual saving is to be gained by installing a ventilating sys- 
tem. When greasy fumes are not exhausted from the 
kitchen they permeate everywhere, leaving a film of 
grease to which dust and dirt clings thickly and solidly. 
A well ventilated room is usually entirely free from dust, 
etc., consequently it is not necessary to redecorate often, 
wherein lies a big saving. 

When you speak of ventilation, most restaurant 
and cafe owners associate it with "hot weather," or a 
requirement for mid-summer. This is absolutely incor- 
rect. True, the conditions mentioned are intensified, 
however, they are not obliterated or anything near so 
during other seasons of the year. In other words the 



Poor Ventilation Kills Appetites 161 

need of correct ventilation is always necessary for the 
many good reasons mentioned. 

In most cases, the cost of a proper system of ven- 
tilation is surprisingly low. Often failure to install a 
ventilating system by an established restaurant, makes 
it comparatively easy for a new owner to successfully 
compete for patronage. 

There are two ways to secure ventilation, one by 
natural means, the other by mechanical operation. The 
former is seldom effective and depends entirely on 
weather conditions. The latter is rapidly being adopted 
everywhere. Mechanical ventilation may be accom- 
plished with either exhaust fans or blowers. 

The determining factor depends on location and 
layout of the kitchen. A most effective and economical 
system can be made by installing exhaust fans of the pro- 
peller type, large enough to change the air every two 
minutes. If it is impossible to install this type of fan 
so it can discharge directly outside, it will then be 
necessary to use a blower type. The latter may be 
connected up with a system of "duct work" which will 
convey the air to the roof or exterior where the kitchen 
odors will be undetected. In "figure one" is shown a 
propeller fan installed in a window. In this case the 
kitchen odors and heat are discharged directly outdoors. 
A fan of this type should always be placed directly over, 
or as near to the range as possible so that it will exhaust 
the elements before they have a chance to circulate else- 
where. "Figure two" is a typical blower installation in 
connection with a hood over the range. In this case the 
air is discharged through a duct up to the roof. 



162 Lunch Room as a Money Maker 

Owners sometimes make a mistake by installing 
the fan in the front of the dining room. Naturally the 
odors in the kitchen would be pulled from the rear to 
the front. While the air would actually be changed, it, 
however, would not be of a fresh nature, as the kitchen 
is not a source of fresh air supply. The correct way as 
will be noted is to install the fan in the kitchen as near 
to the source of evil as possible as indicated in the sketch. 

As an illustration, a kitchen is 25 feet wide, 20 
feet long and 14 feet high, contains 7000 cubic feet of 
air space. In order to change the air in this room every 
"two minutes'* it would require a fan with a capacity of 
3500 cubic feet per minute. To arrive at this, all that 
is necessary is to first find what the cubic foot space of 
the room to be ventilated is. Then divide this by two, 
which gives you the capacity of a fan necessary to 
change the air every two minutes. 

Dining room ventilation is usually figured on a 
"five minute" air change basis. By proper ventilation in 
the kitchen it is not necessary to ventilate the dining 
room separately, only in cases where the kitchen is lo- 
cated on another floor or in some other part of the 
building. 

Today any local electrical supply store or sheet 
metal shop is prepared to install ventilating equipment. 
They are in close touch with manufacturers of ventilat- 
ing apparatus and are regularly installing ventilating sys- 
tems which are actually of great benefit and proving to 
be a mighty profitable investment. 



Poor Ventilation Kills Appetites 163 

Correct ventilation is not at all costly, on the con- 
trary it is cheap compared with the added revenue it will 
create. Don't make the fatal mistake of "over" decorat- 
ing — put some of this money into equipment which will 
make your restaurant or cafe the most desirable eating 
place. Camouflaging lasts but a short time while good 
machinery remains a permanent paying investment. 



